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Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2621, 2 June 1877, Page 3

God." When Adam fell, he aban d°aed that position of absolute dependence upon - and voluntary obedience to, thejus*and holy and perfect will of God, which constituted his perfect happiness and ensured his perfect liberty; and arrogated , to himself that false and baneful attribute of free will'agency, to which such a pernicious and fatal prominence has been given in the doctrinal teachings of modern times. His descendants multiplied in - numbers and trangressions until God's visitation of judgment in the flood vindicated His superior majesty, and the world began to be re-peopled by the descendants of Noah and his family, who had been witnesses of His power and wrath upon transgressors, and had experienced His protection. But human nature once defiled soon fell again.. A new. era, or dispensation, had begun; people began again to multiply upon the earth, and to form communities and nations ; the worldly, power began to concentrate itself under one head, and hence arose the first of that wondrous series of . so-called universal empires, which hare divided between themselves the history of the-age times of our world. Just as these a,-;e times are six in number,* prior to the seventh age, the age of Sabbatic rest, or Millennial age, and just as Bix days of labor are appointed unto man, and the seventh is the day of rest, so in the matter of the Kingdom there are six empires of man's setting up, and the seventh -is the. (Kingdom of God. All power is of God; the powers that be are ordained of God, and "the Most High. ruleth in the kingdom o£ ; men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will." The empire of the world being in itself the absolute and indisputable right of God 'Himself, has been delegated from time to time to the princes or rulers of the following empires: The . Egyptian, the Assyrian, the Babylonish, the Persian, the Grecian, and the Roman Empire, and will be finally wound up and consummated in the Millennial Kingdom of God, in which. the power of the world will be combined with the Heavenly power in the person of Christ. Now-to the Saints of the Most High, that, is, to the: Jewish and: the Gentile Church, is promised in conjunction with Christ the possession of the Kingdom of God, but' inasmuch as the Christian Church does-only interest this blessedness in consequence, humanly speaking, of^the failure of the Jewish Church. to perform the conditions of inheritance, and inasmuch as sentence of failure was only recorded against the Jewish Church, as a consequence attendant upon their rejection of Christ, their head, therefore it is outside: the purpose of this lecture to consider the Gentile Church in the matter. To the Hebrew Church, therefore, which consisted, indeed, of the whole Hebrew nation, was promised in Abraham the possession of the V Kingdom of God" on condition of " obedience." As a test of obedience it was necessary that the Hebrew Church, or nation, .should undergo a discipline. This necessary discipline to which the people of Godj were submitted was threefold and. threefold, the typical resemblance of which to the personal experience and-discipline of perhaps every individual Christian i»ay be readily traced, and is no uncommon subject of remark and exhortation, and is briefly to be summoned up as follows:— >:- First— f~A period of subjection to the ■':,' world power (in Egypt); Second —; Correetionary discipline (in ';.]': the desert); Third— | Probationary discipline (in I; the promised land). This probationary discipline, accompanied as it was by temporary punishments in the times of the. Judges, proving eminently unsatisfactory as regards the'temple of the Jewish race, resulted only in a sinful rejection of God as their.king, and a demand for a king as other nations. Compliance witt this demand on the part of God led (God permitting them, as He - often does, to punish themselves) toSecond, further correetionary discipline under the rod of Kings of their own race. They, having rejected God, who is life and love, were placed, first, for 40 years under Saul, who is emblematic of Antichrist and death, then for forty years under the house of David in the person of David himself, who is typically Christ Millennial, the warrior Christ, who conquers death and the grave, and brings into subjection all his enemies ; and again for a period of 4.0 years under the house of David in the person of Solomon, who is again typically the Millennial Christ, as representing Christ the Prince of Peace over all his people. Again left to further trial for a time under kings of. iheir own race they experienced a period, of various vicissitudes, which resullel-in a fearful apestacy from . God on the part of both kings and people, which led to a third and last series now of absolute chastisements from their offended! God at the hands of, and inflicted by, " kings of a foreign race. At this point the power of the Hebrew Church, or people, becomes again subservient to the power of the world as it was in the former age of Egyptian bondage Nebuchadnezzar happened to be at that time the head of the world power, and in him, therefore,.comes to be centred both the world power and tbe Divine authority, delegated unto him for the express and special purpose of the chastisement of God's rebellious people. This was the position which Nebuchadnezzar occupied with respect to the Jewish race, and to his authority the Jewish people were specially warned nnd notified to submit themselves to. While for the use be made of this authority he himself was called upon thereafter to account, with what result we all very well know. Nebuchadnezzar then was the: chosen scourge of God, with which it pleased him to lash for "their iniquities the Jewish people, which, nevertheless, was still His people, is still His people, and in virtue of His plighted word shall still continue to be His people till time shall end and iniquity shall be no longer. - " God hath not cast away His people whom he foreknew ; " "but thus, saith the Lord of Hosts, there shall- yet old men and, old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand for multitude of days, and the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof." But Nebuchadnezzar was not only tho appointed scourge of God upon the Jewish people; tbe nations of the. earth had each in their measure, and that not a light one, incurred the anger and displeasure of God. A charge against the various nations of the earth, more especially against Egypt, was-com• --.-■-",-' V

* The ages are—lst, Creation ; 2nd, Adam to Noah ; 3rd, Noah to Abraham; 4th, Abraham to Moses ; sth, . Moses to Chrht; Gth, Clmst to Christ; 7th, Millcn- ■ .nial. ■■ ••. ••'•. . ; . '.-• . '■■■-.. . .;. ./..: ■/■■■,;•■:.,