Whatever views Christians may entertain in regard to the Millennium, it is unquestionably their duty to see that the gospel is preached in all the world, to every creature. Those who believe that Christ will reign personally on earth during the millennial era should be dligently engaged in preparing for his coming. Let them instrumentally accomplish the salvation of as many sinners is possible. Peter intimates that the coming of the Lord is apparently deferred because he is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance; and in the same connection Christians are exhorted to look for and hasten the coming of the day of God. "Hastening unto," &c., is the reading of the common version, but is not, I think, justified by the original. The learned Trench is of opinion that Christians are called on (the Spirit of God speaking after the manner of men,) to expedite the coming of Christ by doing those things which, in the divine economy, are to be accomplished before he comes. This, however, is not the place for biblical criticism. What I mean to say is that a belief in the personal reign of Christ during the Millennium, and in the nearness of the day of his coming, cannot legitimately extinguish missionary zeal, but must kindle it into a flame, and induce a liberal consecration of money to the cause of missions.On the other hand, those who believe, as a large majority of Christians probably do, that the reign of Christ, during the Millennium, will be spiritual, and that his personal coming will be deferred till the millennial glory will have been succeeded by Satan's last effort to restore the ruined fortunes of his kingdom, must also believe that a mighty work is to be accomplished through the agency of the saints. For, before truth and righteousness prevail throughout the earth, the strongholds of infidelity must be demolished; Jewish prejudices against the crucified Nazarene must be subdued the fatal spell with which the Arabian imposter has boi millions of our race, must be broken; the multiform systems of Pagan superstition must be overthrown; ten thousand times ten thousand idols must be cast to the "moles and bats;" numberless customs, originating in the depths of antiquity, must be abolished; and "Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth," must fall to rise no more. All this must be done; and is not this a great work? And while Omnipotent energy is requisite to its accomplishment, the churches of the saints have much to do.
It is indispensable to the conversion of the world that the Bible be given to the nations, and that missionaries of the cross be sent to every land. Bibles are not miraculously translated, printed, and circulated. The world will not be furnished with the word of life by miracle. Nor missionaries fed by ravens. So far as mortals know, God has but two ways of accomplishing an object. The one is by miracle - the other by the use of means. If, then, the day of miracles is past, the conclusion is irresistible that instrumentality must be employed in supplying the nations with the Bible and the living ministry. And what instrumentality is to be brought into requisition? Evidently that of the churches of Jesus Christ. They have in their possession the bread of life - the perishing heathen need it - must have it - and who but the churches will give them that bread? The wells of salvation contain inexhaustible supplies of the water of life, but who, except the churches, will draw and convey that water in refreshing rivulets as "far as the curse is found"? The world is in darkness. How is that darkness to be dissipated, unless the churches assume such a moral position as will enable them advantageously to reflect the light they receive from the Sun of Righteousness? Heaven, earth, and hell are looking on to see what the churches will do. The welfare of the world is, under God, suspended on their action. As, then, a responsibility so transcendent devolves on the churches, how is it to be met, unless there be a spirit of beneficence among church members? Can it be met without a consecration of the pecuniary resources of the friends of Christ? Never, never, "To him" - the Messiah - "will be given of the gold of Sheba." The churches must be so overwhelmed with the magnitude of the object before them - the world's salvation - as to be thoroughly imbued with the sentiment that money cannot be so judiciously employed as in the accomplishment of the object. Let Christians live under this impression, and they will give systematically to the Lord's cause. Their offerings will be cast regularly into his treasury.
Christian reader, in closing this series of articles, I ask, what say you? Will you not lay by in store as the Lord prospers you? As he has prospered you? As he will prosper you? Will you not in the fear of God, and in view of the cross on which your Savior died, determine to set apart a liberal portion of your income, and write upon it, "Holiness to the Lord"? Will you not pray more fervently for the arrival of that period when the earth will be filled with the knowledge of God, and when the Redeemer will be enthroned in the affections of a regenerated world? Come quickly, you blessed day of the Lord! Interposing months and years fly with electric rapidity away, and let our eyes behold it! Usher it in, you Prince of Peace!
And added to thy many crowns,
Receive yet one, the crown of all the earth,
Thou who alone art worthy! It was thine
By ancient covenant ere Nature's birth;
And thou hast made it thine by purchase since,
And overpaid its value with thy blood.========== [From the Tennessee Baptist, April 7, 1860, p. 2, from CD edition. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]
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