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THE

PRESBYTERIAN REVIEW.

No. LXXIV.-OCTOBER 1846,

ART. I.-Christ's Second Coming, will it be Pre-Millennial? By the Rev. DAVID BROWN, A.M. Edinburgh: J. Johnstone. 1846.

THE purpose of God is SELF-MANIFESTATION. This has been his design from the beginning, and always must be so. It includes within it other purposes, but it is itself the chief and the ultimate. But let us explain what is meant by self-manifestation.

I take that small seed which the winds are sporting with, and I bury it in the ground. I water it and watch over it to mark its progress and see what it contains. Ere long it shoots above the soil, putting forth its fresh verdure to the sun. Then in the progress of time it strengthens itself and rises upwards, spreading out its branches into a waving tree. In other words, that particle of vital dust which we call seed, has opened itself out, and displayed the amazing treasures which were lying in it undeveloped and unknown. This is self-manifestation.

I take that unsightly root which is lying at my feet, and I carefully lodge it in the soil. Soon it springs up and opens out its treasures, disclosing the lily in its fragrance and beauty. Who could have imagined that hues so bright and fragrance so rich had all been wrapt up in that shapeless form? Yet it was so; and the lily in all its loveliness was but the unfolded root! This is self-manifestation..

These are but poor illustrations of the great truth we set out with announcing. They are objects of a lower scale;-unconscious and involuntary in all their processes of self-development, yet still they are sufficiently exact to make our meaning known. For that which all creation is doing, according to its creaturelaws for the glory of the Creator, is that very thing which Jehovah is doing in regard to himself and for his own glory.

VOL. XIX. NO. IV.

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God's purpose then is self-manifestation, or self-revelation. His design is not merely to make known that He is, but what He is, to exhibit Himself,-the I AM, the Being of Beings, in whom all being is wrapt up, and from whom all forms of being spring; to unbosom and reveal himself fully and perfectly,—not partially and in glimpses, but completely and abidingly,—by bringing forth into view and making visible all that is glorious as well as all that is gracious in the infinite and invisible Godhead. God does not create a world simply because he can do so, and wishes to put forth his power; but because he wishes to bring out to view those riches of his own being and character which had otherwise been hidden. Again, God did not create this earth of ours a fair and happy world at first, simply because he loved to see a fair world inhabited by happy creatures; but because in that beauty and blessedness his own character was most fully revealed, and his own glory most brightly reflected.

How He did this before man was created we know not; or at least we know but little. It was through the medium of another order of creatures, and in another region than this of ours. Angels were the creatures through whom he manifested himself; and it was in heaven that this manifestation was given. They were the eldest-born of creation, and their abode the very palace of the Eternal One. From that centre the first ray of self-manifestation shot forth, and the Invisible and Incomprehensible began to make preparations for making himself seen and known.

Whether he may be at this moment manifesting himself through other races inhabiting those orbs that, like the dewdrops of the morning, lie scattered over infinite space as if to catch and reflect at least the material glory of heaven,-whether other processes of self-manifestation may be going on in regions far beyond our vision or thought, we know not. He has given us no intimation that any such process is now going on; nor have we the slightest evidence to prove that as yet there are in these starry regions races of intelligent creatures existing, or that as yet there are any races in existence save those of angels and of men. That such will be the ultimate issue-that every atom of creation throughout the universe shall subserve the mighty purpose of Divine self-manifestation, we doubt not; but it would appear that meanwhile God is confining his operations to one special region of his dominions, concentrating his thoughts upon one particular process, out of which his one, vast, original, all-comprehensive plan of a God-manifesting universe is to be evolved. It is on the soil of this small planet that he is sowing his seed, and raising as in a nursery those plants which are yet

to clothe a glad universe with their everlasting verdure. It is out of the mountains of this planet that he is hewing the stones with which he is yet to build for himself a temple in every star of the firmament. It is here that he is constructing the materials and sketching the design for his palace; it is here that he is weaving and adorning his robes of royal state with materials furnished by this orb; it is of the gold of this earth that he is fashioning a sceptre for the hand, and a crown for the head of Him who is to be sovereign of the universe; it is from among the lowly dwellers of this narrow region that he is choosing for that King a bride to share his glory and his love; nay, it is out of this very earth that this King himself is to arise, or rather we should say has arisen; for He who is to have dominion as King of kings and Lord of lords is an inhabitant of this planet, the native of a Judean village,-Jesus of Nazareth, the woman's seed.

But without entering farther on the question as to the existence of other spheres and other processes of self-manifestation: there can be no doubt that this earth in the mean time is the speeial one. It is here that this process is going on just now, and it is here that preparations are making for larger and brighter scenes of self-manifestation than eye hath yet seen, or ear hath heard. God has been carrying on this process step by step for these last six thousand years. The process is still advancing, the plan is not yet consummated, but the rudiments of it lie at before us, the stones of the fabric lie scattered around, and prophecy unfolds to us much regarding the coming consummation, and presents to us in no faint colours the picture of the glorious reality, which from the beginning God has had in view, and which shall ere long be given to the gaze of the universe as God's own perfect representation of Himself. For, though storms and darkness must intervene, yet still it is a bright issue to which prophets point, and towards which all things are tending. Beyond all that saddening gloom, beyond all these dreary wastes, there presents itself in the prophetic picture an infinite ocean of unimagined splendour, over whose surface shall be spread out in all their various fulness the perfections of manifested Godhead in everlasting sunshine, for holy beings to gaze upon, and for Jehovah himself to delight in, world without end! As in seven tints of variegated light

Breaks the lone shimmer of the lucid white;
As the seven tints that paint the Iris' bow,
Into the lucid white dissolving flow;

So truth in many-coloured splendour plays,
Now on the eye enchanted with the rays,

Now in one lustre gathers every beam,

And floods the world with light, a single stream!-SCHILLER.

This purpose of self-manifestation developes itself chiefly in connection with two great central events, the first and second advents of Christ. Round these two points all other events cluster. From these two foci all light is radiating, and round them all events revolve. It is only by keeping our eye on these that we can understand the mighty scheme, and enter into the mind of God respecting it, giving to each event its proper place and order, and connection and value. If we either overlook these, or choose other centres, we cannot fail to perplex ourselves and misunderstand the scheme. They are God's centres; and none which man may fix upon or deem more important can supersede them. They may not be those that man would naturally choose; but still they are those on which God has hung everything, and man can gain nothing but confusion and darkness by rejecting either, or elevating other points to their level.

Such questions as these naturally occur: To what extent was this manifestation made at creation? What was the exact design of man's fall in connection with it? How much has been brought out and displayed from the fall to the first coming of Christ? How much was manifested at that advent? What has been the extent and mode of manifestation from that event up till the second advent? What is that advent to bring to light? What are the events subsequent to it to reveal? These are not queries of vain curiosity. They are weighty and solemn, demanding the most strenuous, the most prayerful thought, and the most patient and profound study of the word of God. They are questions pointing totally in a different direction from that which the efforts of philosophy have ever taken-questions which philosophy never thought of putting, questions which philosophy cannot solve.

Into the investigation of these points we do not mean to enter. They are wide and vast, needing treatises and volumes, not mere Articles for their elucidation. They may, however, suggest themes for the Bible student, which may lead to a fuller understanding of the mind and ways of God.

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The object of the Scriptures is to tell us what God has done, and what the creature has done. Both of these are ever kept before us, in order to bring out the respective characters of each. All the recorded actions of man, the sinner, bring out his own character in most various aspects. All God's actions and words, in dealing with man, display his character in all its manifold aspects. At each step something new of God is seen. And all the evil that has been brought to light in man has only been the means of bringing to light the good that is in God. At every point the evil has been met by the good, and overcome. The

depths of the former are inconceivable; the resources of the latter, which have been drawn forth to meet these, are still more so, being truly infinite and divine. The history of these past 6000years is rich in these deep and solemn lessons. It is our wisdom to study them thus.

But the Bible discoveries of God and of the creature do not merely keep pace with the present moment of our history; they go far beyond the present. To say that all the past is thus full of these displays, to say that each day's events are continuing to develope them more and more, is not to tell the whole truth. God has furnished us with hints as to the future developments which we are to expect, and into the meaning of which we may in some measure enter, though the wide compass of the visions, the glory and the grace which they are intended to open up, can only be fully comprehended by those whose eyes shall look upon them.

We call them but hints, for in truth they are no more. 'Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into man's heart the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.' Yet these hints are of unutterable importance and of priceless value. They are hints which mark off the land-marks of the future; adding a little of the details, yet how little in comparison with the reality! They are hints, we have said, but they are not conjectures or dreams. They are 'scenes surpassing fable, and yet true. Man, in looking to the past, thinks he has uttered a profound apophthegm in saying that 'truth is strange, stranger than fiction;' but the days to come will illustrate this in a way such as we have never yet imagined. God has arrows in his quiver sharper and more wasteful than those which, for so many melancholy ages, have been piercing the hearts of the king's enemies, the last still the sharpest and most destructive. He has bright designs' deep-treasured up in his unfathomable mines of never-failing skill,' the last still the brightest and most glorious! These prophetic hints are but glimpses of coming splendour. Yet what a splendour! What a future do they disclose! What a universe! bright all over with the effulgence of manifested Godhead;-perfection everywhere, perfection all the more perfect, because coming forth from previous imperfection and ruin!

God has thus not only manifested himself by telling us what he has done in this world of ours, but by making known what he yet intends to do. He has not hidden from us what he designs to accomplish, in order that, by admitting us into his counsels, we may more fully know himself, and see even now somewhat of those manifestations of his character which shall yet come into

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