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THE

MORNING WATCH.

MARCH 1832.

CHRIST THE MORNING STAR; AND LUCIFER SON OF THE

MORNING.

"I JESUS have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come; and let him that heareth say, Come" (Rev. xxii. 16, 17). "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!" (Isa. xiv. 12.) The morning of the day of the Lord reveals Christ and his hidden ones in the clouds of heaven, and reveals on the earth that wicked one, the son of perdition, whom, when his iniquity is full, the Lord shall consume with the breath of his mouth, and destroy with the brightness of his coming. To share in the blessed reign of Christ, and escape the rage of antichrist which shall come as a snare upon all the dwellers on the earth, we are called to watchfulness and prayer: "Watch and pray alway, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that are coming on the earth, and to stand before the Son of Man;" and this call is addressed to us especially, upon whom the ends of the world

are come.

The objects presented to the faith and hope of the church have been the same from the beginning: "There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all" (Eph. iv. 4-6). "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" (Titusii. 11-13). This present world, cursed for fallen Adam's sake, is not the scene; this present dispensation, of persecution and

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trial and endurance, is not the time; these mortal and corruptible and rebellious bodies are not the subjects, of this glorious manifestation. Christ, who declared "My kingdom is not of this world," has also declared to his disciples " The kingdom of God is within you;" begun in the Spirit now, to be openly manifested in the coming dispensation. And "we, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit" now," wait for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body and the earnest expectation of the whole present creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God." (Rom. viii.)

But in the mind of God, who seeth the end from the beginning; and in the language of the Holy Ghost, who calleth those things which be not as though they were; and to the eye of faith, which gives substance to the things hoped for; the present order of things is lost in its resplendent issues, the dispensation of suffering is merged in the glory for which it prepares, and all its evanescent troubles are but like the spots in the sun, overlooked in the splendour of his beams; as the light afflictions of a moment, which are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. By such a realizing anticipation Abraham looked for a heavenly city, and saw the day of Christ's second advent in glory, and was glad; and by such a present object does our Mediator, who now speaketh from heaven, invoke us, saying, " Ye are come unto mount Zion; and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem; and to an innumerable company of angels; to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven; and to God the Judge of all; and to the spirits of just men made perfect" (Heb. xii. 22).

The hope was implanted firm in the apostles and patriarchs of old; and though seen by them afar off, their faith, resting on the promises, was enabled to take hold upon them with full assurance. We live at a time when these promises are about to be accomplished, and our faith ought to rest with double assurance, when so many signs in the providence of God are confirming the word of Scripture; and we would now direct the faith of our readers especially to the gatherings of the church and of the people of God, so often declared in Scripture, and the contemporaneous gathering of the followers of antichrist;the gathering of the church being to the heavenly Jerusalem, where the spirits of just men are perfected by being clothed with their glorified bodies at the first resurrection, and they are

ed into the tabernacle of God: the gathering of the people

of God being to the earthly Jerusalem, whither also the families of the earth shall all be gathered to keep the feast of Tabernacles (Zech. xiv. 16): and the gathering of the followers of antichrist being to the supper of the great God, in order to be cast into

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