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Chapter Forty Two
The Controversy Ended
At the close of the thousand years, Christ again returns
to the earth. He is accompanied by the host of the
redeemed and attended by a retinue of angels. As He
descends in terrific majesty He bids the wicked dead arise
to receive their doom. They come forth, a mighty host,
numberless as the sands of the sea. What a contrast to those
who were raised at the first resurrection! The righteous were
clothed with immortal youth and beauty. The wicked bear
the traces of disease and death.
Every eye in that vast multitude is turned to behold the
glory of the Son of God. With one voice the wicked hosts
exclaim: “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the
Lord!” It is not love to Jesus that inspires this utterance. The
force of truth urges the words from unwilling lips. As the
wicked went into their graves, so they come forth with the
same enmity to Christ and the same spirit of rebellion. They
are to have no new probation in which to remedy the defects
of their past lives. Nothing would be gained by this. A
lifetime of transgression has not softened their hearts. A second
probation, were it given them, would be occupied as was
the first in evading the requirements of God and exciting
rebellion against Him.
Christ descends upon the Mount of Olives, whence, after
His resurrection, He ascended, and where angels repeated the
promise of His return. Says the prophet: “The Lord my God
shall come, and all the saints with Thee.” “And His feet
shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is
before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall
cleave in the midst thereof, . . . and there shall be a very
great valley.” “And the Lord shall be king over all the earth:
in that day shall there be one Lord, and His name one.”
Zechariah 14:5, 4, 9. As the New Jerusalem, in its dazzling
splendor, comes down out of heaven, it rests upon the place
purified and made ready to receive it, and Christ, with His
people and the angels, enters the Holy City.
Now Satan prepares for a last mighty struggle for the
supremacy. While deprived of his power and cut off from
his work of deception, the prince of evil was miserable and
dejected; but as the wicked dead are raised and he sees the
vast multitudes upon his side, his hopes revive, and he
determines not to yield the great controversy. He will marshal
all the armies of the lost under his banner and through them
endeavor to execute his plans. The wicked are Satan’s
captives. In rejecting Christ they have accepted the rule of the
rebel leader. They are ready to receive his suggestions and to
do his bidding. Yet, true to his early cunning, he does not
acknowledge himself to be Satan. He claims to be the prince
who is the rightful owner of the world and whose inheritance
has been unlawfully wrested from him. He represents
himself to his deluded subjects as a redeemer, assuring them that
his power has brought them forth from their graves and that
he is about to rescue them from the most cruel tyranny. The
presence of Christ having been removed, Satan works
wonders to support his claims. He makes the weak strong and
inspires all with his own spirit and energy. He proposes to
lead them against the camp of the saints and to take possession
of the City of God. With fiendish exultation he points
to the unnumbered millions who have been raised from the
dead and declares that as their leader he is well able to
overthrow the city and regain his throne and his kingdom.
In that vast throng are multitudes of the long-lived race
that existed before the Flood; men of lofty stature and giant
intellect, who, yielding to the control of fallen angels, devoted
all their skill and knowledge to the exaltation of themselves;
men whose wonderful works of art led the world to idolize
their genius, but whose cruelty and evil inventions, defiling
the earth and defacing the image of God, caused Him to blot
them from the face of His creation. There are kings and
generals who conquered nations, valiant men who never lost a
battle, proud, ambitious warriors whose approach made kingdoms
tremble. In death these experienced no change. As
they come up from the grave, they resume the current of
their thoughts just where it ceased. They are actuated by
the same desire to conquer that ruled them when they fell.
Satan consults with his angels, and then with these kings
and conquerors and mighty men. They look upon the
strength and numbers on their side, and declare that the
army within the city is small in comparison with theirs, and
that it can be overcome. They lay their plans to take
possession of the riches and glory of the New Jerusalem. All
immediately begin to prepare for battle. Skillful artisans
construct implements of war. Military leaders, famed for
their success, marshal the throngs of warlike men into
companies and divisions.
At last the order to advance is given, and the countless
host moves on—an army such as was never summoned by
earthly conquerors, such as the combined forces of all ages
since war began on earth could never equal. Satan, the
mightiest of warriors, leads the van, and his angels unite
their forces for this final struggle. Kings and warriors are
in his train, and the multitudes follow in vast companies,
each under its appointed leader. With military precision
the serried ranks advance over the earth’s broken and
uneven surface to the City of God. By command of Jesus,
the gates of the New Jerusalem are closed, and the armies
of Satan surround the city and make ready for the onset.
Now Christ again appears to the view of His enemies. Far
above the city, upon a foundation of burnished gold, is a
throne, high and lifted up. Upon this throne sits the Son of
God, and around Him are the subjects of His kingdom. The
power and majesty of Christ no language can describe, no
pen portray. The glory of the Eternal Father is enshrouding
His Son. The brightness of His presence fills the City of
God, and flows out beyond the gates, flooding the whole
earth with its radiance.
Nearest the throne are those who were once zealous in the
cause of Satan, but who, plucked as brands from the burning,
have followed their Saviour with deep, intense devotion.
Next are those who perfected Christian characters in the
midst of falsehood and infidelity, those who honored the law
of God when the Christian world declared it void, and the
millions, of all ages, who were martyred for their faith. And
beyond is the “great multitude, which no man could number,
of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, . . .
before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white
robes, and palms in their hands.”
Revelation 7:9. Their
warfare is ended, their victory won. They have run the race
and reached the prize. The palm branch in their hands is a
symbol of their triumph, the white robe an emblem of the
spotless righteousness of Christ which now is theirs.
The redeemed raise a song of praise that echoes and
re-echoes through the vaults of heaven: “Salvation to our God
which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.”
Verse 10. And angel and seraph unite their voices in adoration. As
the redeemed have beheld the power and malignity of Satan,
they have seen, as never before, that no power but that of
Christ could have made them conquerors. In all that shining
throng there are none to ascribe salvation to themselves, as
if they had prevailed by their own power and goodness.
Nothing is said of what they have done or suffered; but the
burden of every song, the keynote of every anthem, is:
Salvation to our God and unto the Lamb.
In the presence of the assembled inhabitants of earth and
heaven the final coronation of the Son of God takes place.
And now, invested with supreme majesty and power, the
King of kings pronounces sentence upon the rebels against
His government and executes justice upon those who have
transgressed His law and oppressed His people. Says the
prophet of God: “I saw a great white throne, and Him that
sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away;
and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead,
small and great, stand before God; and the books were
opened: and another book was opened, which is the book
of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which
were written in the books, according to their works.”
Revelation 20:11, 12.
As soon as the books of record are opened, and the eye of
Jesus looks upon the wicked, they are conscious of every sin
which they have ever committed. They see just where their
feet diverged from the path of purity and holiness, just how
far pride and rebellion have carried them in the violation of
the law of God. The seductive temptations which they
encouraged by indulgence in sin, the blessings perverted, the
messengers of God despised, the warnings rejected, the waves
of mercy beaten back by the stubborn, unrepentant heart—all
appear as if written in letters of fire.
Above the throne is revealed the cross; and like a
panoramic view appear the scenes of Adam’s temptation and fall,
and the successive steps in the great plan of redemption. The
Saviour’s lowly birth; His early life of simplicity and
obedience; His baptism in Jordan; the fast and temptation in the
wilderness; His public ministry, unfolding to men heaven’s
most precious blessings; the days crowded with deeds of love
and mercy, the nights of prayer and watching in the solitude
of the mountains; the plottings of envy, hate, and malice
which repaid His benefits; the awful, mysterious agony in
Gethsemane beneath the crushing weight of the sins of the
whole world; His betrayal into the hands of the murderous
mob; the fearful events of that night of horror—the unresisting
prisoner, forsaken by His best-loved disciples, rudely
hurried through the streets of Jerusalem; the Son of God
exultingly displayed before Annas, arraigned in the high
priest’s palace, in the judgment hall of Pilate, before the
cowardly and cruel Herod, mocked, insulted, tortured, and
condemned to die—all are vividly portrayed.
And now before the swaying multitude are revealed the
final scenes—the patient Sufferer treading the path to
Calvary; the Prince of heaven hanging upon the cross; the
haughty priests and the jeering rabble deriding His expiring
agony; the supernatural darkness; the heaving earth, the
rent rocks, the open graves, marking the moment when the
world’s Redeemer yielded up His life.
The awful spectacle appears just as it was. Satan, his
angels, and his subjects have no power to turn from the
picture of their own work. Each actor recalls the part which he
performed. Herod, who slew the innocent children of
Bethlehem that he might destroy the King of Israel; the base
Herodias, upon whose guilty soul rests the blood of John the
Baptist; the weak, timeserving Pilate; the mocking soldiers;
the priests and rulers and the maddened throng who cried,
"His blood be on us, and on our children!” —all behold the
enormity of their guilt. They vainly seek to hide from the
divine majesty of His countenance, outshining the glory of
the sun, while the redeemed cast their crowns at the Saviour’s
feet, exclaiming: “He died for me!”
Amid the ransomed throng are the apostles of Christ, the
heroic Paul, the ardent Peter, the loved and loving John, and
their truehearted brethren, and with them the vast host of
martyrs; while outside the walls, with every vile and
abominable thing, are those by whom they were persecuted,
imprisoned, and slain. There is Nero, that monster of cruelty
and vice, beholding the joy and exaltation of those whom
he once tortured, and in whose extremest anguish he found
satanic delight. His mother is there to witness the result of
her own work; to see how the evil stamp of character
transmitted to her son, the passions encouraged and developed by
her influence and example, have borne fruit in crimes that
caused the world to shudder.
There are papist priests and prelates, who claimed to be
Christ’s ambassadors, yet employed the rack, the dungeon,
and the stake to control the consciences of His people. There
are the proud pontiffs who exalted themselves above God and
presumed to change the law of the Most High. Those
pretended fathers of the church have an account to render to
God from which they would fain be excused. Too late they
are made to see that the Omniscient One is jealous of His law
and that He will in no wise clear the guilty. They learn now
that Christ identifies His interest with that of His suffering
people; and they feel the force of His own words: “Inasmuch
as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren,
ye have done it unto Me.”
Matthew 25:40.
The whole wicked world stand arraigned at the bar of
God on the charge of high treason against the government
of heaven. They have none to plead their cause; they are
without excuse; and the sentence of eternal death is
pronounced against them.
It is now evident to all that the wages of sin is not noble
independence and eternal life, but slavery, ruin, and death.
The wicked see what they have forfeited by their life of
rebellion. The far more exceeding and eternal weight of
glory was despised when offered them; but how desirable it
now appears. “All this,” cries the lost soul, “I might have
had; but I chose to put these things far from me. Oh, strange
infatuation! I have exchanged peace, happiness, and honor
for wretchedness, infamy, and despair.” All see that their
exclusion from heaven is just. By their lives they have
declared: “We will not have this Man [Jesus] to reign over us.”
As if entranced, the wicked have looked upon the coronation
of the Son of God. They see in His hands the tables of
the divine law, the statutes which they have despised and
transgressed. They witness the outburst of wonder, rapture,
and adoration from the saved; and as the wave of melody
sweeps over the multitudes without the city, all with one
voice exclaim, “Great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord
God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of
saints” (Revelation 15:3); and, falling prostrate, they
worship the Prince of life.
Satan seems paralyzed as he beholds the glory and majesty
of Christ. He who was once a covering cherub remembers
whence he has fallen. A shining seraph, “son of the
morning;” how changed, how degraded! From the council where
once he was honored, he is forever excluded. He sees another
now standing near to the Father, veiling His glory. He has
seen the crown placed upon the head of Christ by an angel
of lofty stature and majestic presence, and he knows that the
exalted position of this angel might have been his.
Memory recalls the home of his innocence and purity, the
peace and content that were his until he indulged in
murmuring against God, and envy of Christ. His accusations, his
rebellion, his deceptions to gain the sympathy and support of
the angels, his stubborn persistence in making no effort for
self-recovery when God would have granted him forgiveness
—all come vividly before him. He reviews his work
among men and its results—the enmity of man toward his
fellow man, the terrible destruction of life, the rise and fall of
kingdoms, the overturning of thrones, the long succession
of tumults, conflicts, and revolutions. He recalls his constant
efforts to oppose the work of Christ and to sink man lower
and lower. He sees that his hellish plots have been powerless
to destroy those who have put their trust in Jesus. As Satan
looks upon his kingdom, the fruit of his toil, he sees only
failure and ruin. He has led the multitudes to believe that
the City of God would be an easy prey; but he knows that
this is false. Again and again, in the progress of the great
controversy, he has been defeated and compelled to yield.
He knows too well the power and majesty of the Eternal.
The aim of the great rebel has ever been to justify himself
and to prove the divine government responsible for the
rebellion. To this end he has bent all the power of his giant
intellect. He has worked deliberately and systematically, and
with marvelous success, leading vast multitudes to accept his
version of the great controversy which has been so long in
progress. For thousands of years this chief of conspiracy has
palmed off falsehood for truth. But the time has now come
when the rebellion is to be finally defeated and the history
and character of Satan disclosed. In his last great effort to
dethrone Christ, destroy His people, and take possession of
the City of God, the archdeceiver has been fully unmasked.
Those who have united with him see the total failure of his
cause. Christ’s followers and the loyal angels behold the full
extent of his machinations against the government of God.
He is the object of universal abhorrence.
Satan sees that his voluntary rebellion has unfitted him for
heaven. He has trained his powers to war against God; the
purity, peace, and harmony of heaven would be to him
supreme torture. His accusations against the mercy and justice
of God are now silenced. The reproach which he has
endeavored to cast upon Jehovah rests wholly upon himself.
And now Satan bows down and confesses the justice of his
sentence.
“Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy
name? for Thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and
worship before Thee; for Thy judgments are made
manifest.”
Verse 4. Every question of truth and error in the
long-standing controversy has now been made plain. The results
of rebellion, the fruits of setting aside the divine statutes, have
been laid open to the view of all created intelligences. The
working out of Satan’s rule in contrast with the government
of God has been presented to the whole universe. Satan’s
own works have condemned him. God’s wisdom, His justice,
and His goodness stand fully vindicated. It is seen that all
His dealings in the great controversy have been conducted
with respect to the eternal good of His people and the good
of all the worlds that He has created. “All Thy works shall
praise Thee, O Lord; and Thy saints shall bless Thee.”
Psalm 145:10. The history of sin will stand to all eternity as a
witness that with the existence of God’s law is bound up the
happiness of all the beings He has created. With all the facts
of the great controversy in view, the whole universe, both
loyal and rebellious, with one accord declare: “Just and true
are Thy ways, Thou King of saints.”
Before the universe has been clearly presented the great
sacrifice made by the Father and the Son in man’s behalf.
The hour has come when Christ occupies His rightful position
and is glorified above principalities and powers and every
name that is named. It was for the joy that was set before
Him—that He might bring many sons unto glory—that He
endured the cross and despised the shame. And inconceivably
great as was the sorrow and the shame, yet greater is the
joy and the glory. He looks upon the redeemed, renewed in
His own image, every heart bearing the perfect impress of
the divine, every face reflecting the likeness of their King.
He beholds in them the result of the travail of His soul, and
He is satisfied. Then, in a voice that reaches the assembled
multitudes of the righteous and the wicked, He declares:
"Behold the purchase of My blood! For these I suffered, for
these I died, that they might dwell in My presence throughout
eternal ages.” And the song of praise ascends from the
white-robed ones about the throne: “Worthy is the Lamb
that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom,
and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.”
Revelation 5:12.
Notwithstanding that Satan has been constrained to
acknowledge God’s justice and to bow to the supremacy of
Christ, his character remains unchanged. The spirit of
rebellion, like a mighty torrent, again bursts forth. Filled with
frenzy, he determines not to yield the great controversy. The
time has come for a last desperate struggle against the King
of heaven. He rushes into the midst of his subjects and
endeavors to inspire them with his own fury and arouse them
to instant battle. But of all the countless millions whom he
has allured into rebellion, there are none now to acknowledge
his supremacy. His power is at an end. The wicked
are filled with the same hatred of God that inspires Satan;
but they see that their case is hopeless, that they cannot
prevail against Jehovah. Their rage is kindled against Satan
and those who have been his agents in deception, and with
the fury of demons they turn upon them.
Saith the Lord: “Because thou hast set thine heart as the
heart of God; behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon
thee, the terrible of the nations: and they shall draw their
swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall
defile thy brightness. They shall bring thee down to the
pit.” “I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst
of the stones of fire. . . . I will cast thee to the ground, I will
lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. . . . I will
bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them
that behold thee. . . . Thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt
thou be any more.”
Ezekiel 28:6-8, 16-19.
“Every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and
garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and
fuel of fire.” “The indignation of the Lord is upon all nations,
and His fury upon all their armies: He hath utterly destroyed
them, He hath delivered them to the slaughter.” “Upon the
wicked He shall rain quick burning coals, fire and
brimstone and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of
their cup.”
Isaiah 9:5;
34:2;
Psalm 11:6, margin. Fire comes
down from God out of heaven. The earth is broken up. The
weapons concealed in its depths are drawn forth. Devouring
flames burst from every yawning chasm. The very rocks are
on fire. The day has come that shall burn as an oven. The
elements melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works
that are therein are burned up.
Malachi 4:1;
2 Peter 3:10.
The earth’s surface seems one molten mass—a vast, seething
lake of fire. It is the time of the judgment and perdition of
ungodly men—"the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the
year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion.”
Isaiah 34:8.
The wicked receive their recompense in the earth.
Proverbs 11:31. They “shall be stubble: and the day that cometh
shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts.”
Malachi 4:1.
Some are destroyed as in a moment, while others suffer many
days. All are punished “according to their deeds.” The sins
of the righteous having been transferred to Satan, he is made
to suffer not only for his own rebellion, but for all the sins
which he has caused God’s people to commit. His punishment
is to be far greater than that of those whom he has
deceived. After all have perished who fell by his deceptions,
he is still to live and suffer on. In the cleansing flames the
wicked are at last destroyed, root and branch—Satan the root,
his followers the branches. The full penalty of the law has
been visited; the demands of justice have been met; and
heaven and earth, beholding, declare the righteousness of
Jehovah.
Satan’s work of ruin is forever ended. For six thousand
years he has wrought his will, filling the earth with woe and
causing grief throughout the universe. The whole creation
has groaned and travailed together in pain. Now God’s
creatures are forever delivered from his presence and temptations.
"The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they [the righteous]
break forth into singing.”
Isaiah 14:7. And a shout of praise
and triumph ascends from the whole loyal universe. “The
voice of a great multitude,” “as the voice of many waters,
and as the voice of mighty thunderings,” is heard, saying:
"Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.”
Revelation 19:6.
While the earth was wrapped in the fire of destruction,
the righteous abode safely in the Holy City. Upon those that
had part in the first resurrection, the second death has no
power. While God is to the wicked a consuming fire, He
is to His people both a sun and a shield.
Revelation 20:6;
Psalm 84:11.
“I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven
and the first earth were passed away.”
Revelation 21:1. The
fire that consumes the wicked purifies the earth. Every trace
of the curse is swept away. No eternally burning hell will
keep before the ransomed the fearful consequences of sin.
One reminder alone remains: Our Redeemer will ever
bear the marks of His crucifixion. Upon His wounded head,
upon His side, His hands and feet, are the only traces of the
cruel work that sin has wrought. Says the prophet, beholding
Christ in His glory: “He had bright beams coming out of His
side: and there was the hiding of His power.”
Habakkuk 3:4, margin. That pierced side whence flowed the crimson
stream that reconciled man to God—there is the Saviour’s
glory, there “the hiding of His power.” “Mighty to save,”
through the sacrifice of redemption, He was therefore strong
to execute justice upon them that despised God’s mercy.
And the tokens of His humiliation are His highest honor;
through the eternal ages the wounds of Calvary will show
forth His praise and declare His power.
“O Tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of
Zion, unto Thee shall it come, even the first dominion.”
Micah 4:8. The time has come to which holy men have
looked with longing since the flaming sword barred the first
pair from Eden, the time for “the redemption of the
purchased possession.”
Ephesians 1:14. The earth originally
given to man as his kingdom, betrayed by him into the hands
of Satan, and so long held by the mighty foe, has been
brought back by the great plan of redemption. All that was
lost by sin has been restored. “Thus saith the Lord . . . that
formed the earth and made it; He hath established it, He
created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited.”
Isaiah 45:18. God’s original purpose in the creation of the earth
is fulfilled as it is made the eternal abode of the redeemed.
"The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein
forever.”
Psalm 37:29.
A fear of making the future inheritance seem too material
has led many to spiritualize away the very truths which lead
us to look upon it as our home. Christ assured His disciples
that He went to prepare mansions for them in the Father’s
house. Those who accept the teachings of God’s word will
not be wholly ignorant concerning the heavenly abode. And
yet, “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared
for them that love Him.”
1 Corinthians 2:9. Human
language is inadequate to describe the reward of the righteous.
It will be known only to those who behold it. No finite mind
can comprehend the glory of the Paradise of God.
In the Bible the inheritance of the saved is called “a
country.”
Hebrews 11:14-16. There the heavenly Shepherd leads
His flock to fountains of living waters. The tree of life yields
its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree are for the
service of the nations. There are ever-flowing streams, clear
as crystal, and beside them waving trees cast their shadows
upon the paths prepared for the ransomed of the Lord.
There the wide-spreading plains swell into hills of beauty,
and the mountains of God rear their lofty summits. On
those peaceful plains, beside those living streams, God’s
people, so long pilgrims and wanderers, shall find a home.
“My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in
sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.” “Violence shall
no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within
thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy
gates Praise.” “They shall build houses, and inhabit them;
and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.
They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not
plant, and another eat: . . . Mine elect shall long enjoy the
work of their hands.”
Isaiah 32:18;
60:18;
65:21, 22.
There, “the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad
for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the
rose.” “Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and
instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree.” “The
wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall
lie down with the kid; . . . and a little child shall lead them.”
"They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,” saith the Lord.
Isaiah 35:1;
55:13;
11:6, 9.
Pain cannot exist in the atmosphere of heaven. There will
be no more tears, no funeral trains, no badges of mourning.
"There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying:
. . . for the former things are passed away.” “The inhabitant
shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall
be forgiven their iniquity.”
Revelation 21:4;
Isaiah 33:24.
There is the New Jerusalem, the metropolis of the glorified
new earth, “a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord,
and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.” “Her light was
like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear
as crystal.” “The nations of them which are saved shall walk
in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their
glory and honor into it.” Saith the Lord: “I will rejoice in
Jerusalem, and joy in My people.” “The tabernacle of God
is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be
His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be
their God.”
Isaiah 62:3;
Revelation 21:11, 24;
Isaiah 65:19;
Revelation 21:3.
In the City of God “there shall be no night.” None will
need or desire repose. There will be no weariness in doing the
will of God and offering praise to His name. We shall ever
feel the freshness of the morning and shall ever be far from
its close. “And they need no candle, neither light of the sun;
for the Lord God giveth them light.”
Revelation 22:5. The
light of the sun will be superseded by a radiance which is
not painfully dazzling, yet which immeasurably surpasses
the brightness of our noontide. The glory of God and the
Lamb floods the Holy City with unfading light. The
redeemed walk in the sunless glory of perpetual day.
“I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and
the Lamb are the temple of it.”
Revelation 21:22. The people
of God are privileged to hold open communion with the
Father and the Son. “Now we see through a glass, darkly.”
1 Corinthians 13:12. We behold the image of God reflected,
as in a mirror, in the works of nature and in His dealings
with men; but then we shall see Him face to face, without
a dimming veil between. We shall stand in His presence and
behold the glory of His countenance.
There the redeemed shall know, even as also they are
known. The loves and sympathies which God Himself has
planted in the soul shall there find truest and sweetest exercise.
The pure communion with holy beings, the harmonious
social life with the blessed angels and with the faithful ones
of all ages who have washed their robes and made them
white in the blood of the Lamb, the sacred ties that bind
together “the whole family in heaven and earth” (Ephesians 3:15)—these help to constitute the happiness of the redeemed.
There, immortal minds will contemplate with
never-failing delight the wonders of creative power, the mysteries
of redeeming love. There will be no cruel, deceiving foe
to tempt to forgetfulness of God. Every faculty will be
developed, every capacity increased. The acquirement of
knowledge will not weary the mind or exhaust the energies.
There the grandest enterprises may be carried forward, the
loftiest aspirations reached, the highest ambitions realized;
and still there will arise new heights to surmount, new
wonders to admire, new truths to comprehend, fresh objects to
call forth the powers of mind and soul and body.
All the treasures of the universe will be open to the study
of God’s redeemed. Unfettered by mortality, they wing their
tireless flight to worlds afar—worlds that thrilled with
sorrow at the spectacle of human woe and rang with songs of
gladness at the tidings of a ransomed soul. With unutterable
delight the children of earth enter into the joy and the
wisdom of unfallen beings. They share the treasures of
knowledge and understanding gained through ages upon
ages in contemplation of God’s handiwork. With undimmed
vision they gaze upon the glory of creation—suns and stars
and systems, all in their appointed order circling the throne
of Deity. Upon all things, from the least to the greatest, the
Creator’s name is written, and in all are the riches of His
power displayed.
And the years of eternity, as they roll, will bring richer
and still more glorious revelations of God and of Christ. As
knowledge is progressive, so will love, reverence, and happiness
increase. The more men learn of God, the greater will
be their admiration of His character. As Jesus opens before
them the riches of redemption and the amazing achievements
in the great controversy with Satan, the hearts of the
ransomed thrill with more fervent devotion, and with more
rapturous joy they sweep the harps of gold; and ten thousand
times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of voices
unite to swell the mighty chorus of praise.
“And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth,
and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that
are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory,
and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and
unto the Lamb for ever and ever.”
Revelation 5:13.
The great controversy is ended. Sin and sinners are no
more. The entire universe is clean. One pulse of harmony
and gladness beats through the vast creation. From Him
who created all, flow life and light and gladness, throughout
the realms of illimitable space. From the minutest atom to
the greatest world, all things, animate and inanimate, in their
unshadowed beauty and perfect joy, declare that God is love.
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Index
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Appendix
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