1865 328 I have specially taken pleasure of late in considering the moral happiness of heaven and of the Millennium. For what a relief it must be to be free of the selfishness and pride which so spoils the pleasures of the heart now, and of many and many a working of our impure and perverted nature. And Scripture, more largely than we may suppose, gives us witnesses and examples of this character of heavenly enjoyments.
We know that great physical power or virtue will attend the coming kingdom of Christ. Then, as prophets sing, "the wilderness shall rejoice and blossom as the rose … the lame shall leap as an hart, the tongue of the dumb shall sing;" "the wolf shall lie down with the lamb, and the leopard with the kid." Nature, in all its order, shall own the presence of the Lord. The floods shall lift up their voice, the trees of the wood shall rejoice, before Him. As creation has already felt the bondage of corruption, it shall then feel the liberty of glory.
It will be like the awakening of latent sensibilities, like the sweeping of an exquisite instrument by the touch of a master-hand. For it is the same creation, the same vegetable and animal world still, but under new authority. Let the sons of God be manifested in their glory, let the Lord's holy mountain be established, and His knowledge cover the earth as the waters do the sea, and then the whole system, as thus pictured by the prophets, shall spring forth into new conditions. And so in man, when the powers of that coming age take him for their subject. Let but the glory appear, let but the passage be made from "this present evil world" into "the world to come," and new principles will rise at once to gild the scene, and give to all personal and social life its richest enjoyments, that is, its moral enjoyments. This will be the sweeping with perfect skill an instrument of still finer workmanship. For there are in the renewed mind latent qualities of admirable texture and beauty. In its present condition it has to struggle with nature, and to suffer sore let and hindrance from the flesh. It is oppressed and encumbered by a gross atmosphere which ever surrounds it; but it has qualities inlaid in it of admirable excellence. It has capabilities of acting, judging, and feeling of the highest order, partaking, as we know, of "the divine nature." And let but the due power reach it and move it, and all these latent sensibilities and faculties will be awakened. Let but the presence of Christ address itself to the renewed mind brought into the liberty of the kingdom, and forms of moral beauty in purity and benevolence throughout all personal and social life will be blessedly unfolded. It will not be another creation, but the same "new creature" in other conditions, all its powers and affections finding their exercise in their native air, and under their proper and undisturbed influences. Scripture, as I have observed, more largely than we may suppose, gives us the witnesses of this character of the virtues and enjoyments of the kingdom. Some of them I will now look at shortly.
In Genesis 21, the father of Israel and the Gentile are seen together, for a mystic moment, as Israel and the nations will be in the days of the kingdom. All is peace and good-will between them. Questions which before had divided them are settled. The wave of their hearts, in themselves and towards each other, are all right. No grudging here, no provoking there. All pure social affections and principles adorn the scene of their intercourse. Abraham's grave makes the desert to blossom, and his altar makes the earth a sanctuary, but his way with Abimelech and Abimelech's with him witness the presence and power of right moral principles and pure social affections, giving the moment its highest character and richest enjoyments.
But how had it been with Abraham and Abimelech before? What was the moral of the scene when they last met? I need not speak of it; the preceding chapter, as we know, tells us. But what a change! The very same men are here before us, the Abimelech and the Abraham of Genesis 20, but what a change! How blessed to think of it! No trespass now of defiling lusts, no practising the skill of a guileful heart. The scene is morally new, though the materials are the same. Because, in principle, there has been a passage out of "this present evil world" into "the world to come."
And so between Isaac and another Abimelech. It is of one character with this, and therefore I need not further notice it than as being another happy witness of the moral virtue that there will be in millennial days, when the atmosphere will be cleared of its noxious humours which now so dim and taint the whole social system. (Gen. 26)
Exodus 18 presents a kindred occasion. The whole family in heaven and on earth are there seen, holding high and holy communion, and nothing of nature soils it. Jethro acts the part of the heavenly visitor, Moses that of the head and representative of the earthly people, and the people themselves are there, waiting upon him in full subjection, "to enquire of God," and know "the judgment of God" in their matters. All is happy, from the highest to the lowest, throughout this mystic millennial heavens and earth; all is full of moral beauty and order. And only remember of what materials such a lovely scene is formed! The last time that Moses and Zipporah were together, they parted as in a rage; the last time the people are seen and heard, it was murmuring again and again at the ways of the Lord, one after another. (Ex. 4, 15 — 17.) The same Moses, the same Zipporah, the same people, but, morally, how different! The people enquire and obey, instead of murmuring; and Zipporah's offence with her "bloody husband" ends in her bringing back her children to greet and rejoice with her lord.
Is there to be in those coming days, as we know there is, a transfiguration, and in the heavenly places that which is now natural will then be spiritual, and the corruptible will be raised in glory? And is there to be then, in the earthly places, as we know there is, the leopard dwelling with the kid, and the child playing with the hole of the asp? And are such prospects bright and animating? And shall these moral transfigurations be left so? Is not the hope of them bright and animating also, yea, unspeakably so? Is it not deeply cheering to our spirits, that such an air as this shall be breathed, when once "the mount of God" is reached? Cloud and vapour gather over the road to it, where now we travel, but the sunshine of purity and love gilds the hill itself for ever and ever.
But again, that generation in Israel which lived in the closing days of David and in the opening days of Solomon gives us another witness and example of the same mystery. As David was ending his reign, they carry themselves very badly: Absalom had stolen their hearts from his father, and Sheba, the son of Bichri, had headed them against his king. And at the very end Adonijah makes a party for himself out of them. The whole moral state, with the exception of a remnant, is forbidding indeed. But millennial days were at hand. The sceptre of the King of Glory waves across the scene, and there is virtue in it, strange and precious virtue. Confusion and enmities cease. Roots of bitterness are extracted from the soil. The people are happy in each other's happiness. Instead of Judah and Israel numbering each other to the sword, "Judah and Israel are many, as the sands on the sea-shore, eating, drinking, and making merry." Instead of going again to the wood of Ephraim to battle, they sit under their vines and fig trees, calling each other their neighbour, and none making them afraid. The sword is turned into the plough-share, I may say, in more senses than one. (2 Sam. 15; 1 Kings 4)
What comfort is there in all this! Pass but the boundaries of the two worlds, leave man's day for the day of the Lord, and all this moral renovation, with its thousand offerings and streams of social happiness, will be known even in the place where pride and selfishness now spoil, or at least depreciate, all the pleasures of our hearts. And again in the mouth of another witness the same joy is proved to us. The sight we get of "the holy mount" tells the same wondrous, happy tale. There, the kingdom shines before us in its heavenly and earthly places. We see the progression of glory in some, and the vision of it only in others. But no grudging, no provoking attends this. Peter utters the moral power of such a moment as this, for all with him is gladness and benevolence, satisfaction and unselfishness. And yet who was this Peter? The man who shortly before, as at the foot of that hill, had been an offence to the Lord; resisting that very truth which the heavenly strangers, who now so ravish him, talk about; savouring there of the things "of man," but now so richly of those that be "of God!"
And yet, all this exquisite moral change in Peter does not bespeak him so much, as the virtue of the place he was in. He wist not what he said. All that, however, makes it only the more blessed to us. For it is the presence of Christ that forms him and fills him, making him thus the necessary witness of its benevolence and joy. And I ask, if the possession of glory, or even the vision of glory be thus to be desired, what says the heart to this prospect of being freed of its selfishness, breathing elements which gender love and purity like this? Surely we are now harassed by our corruption, again and again discouraged and depressed by the low condition of the saints, the contrary sources into which changeful tempers and passions are urging us, with jealousies that daily arise, heart-burnings, debates, and whisperings. But all this is to end. All this shall yield to the authority of all personal and social virtues, as soon as "the mountain of the Lord's house" is established. "For Ephraim shall not envy Judah, nor Judah vex Ephraim."
It is this one feature, common to each of these samples of millennial days, that has at this time particularly attracted one. In each of these scenes and illustrations, there was so much of the working of perverted nature just before, but immediately on reaching the place of the power of the day of the Lord, the purest and happiest principles and affections adorn and animate everything.
Such is the moral power of "the world to come," or in it, if we would rather that it were so expressed. It is but a little while, and thus shall it be. And happy to apply all this to our own history. The very same brethren, who now so often grieve one another will ere long be sharers, yea, helpers, of each other's joy. The air of the kingdom, the presence of Christ, will have such virtue accompanying it.
But then, I ask, can we indeed say that we prize such a prospect of moral happiness as this, which is to be ours in the presence of the Lord, and not even now cherish that presence, and the virtues of it in spirit? Surely we cannot. And though I have hinted it before, I may just add, if the atmosphere of the coming kingdom be thus a cure for corruption, how will it have power to nourish and expand the virtues of the renewed mind! In the Holy Ghost it will then unfold its affections and faculties, as in its native air; the day-star, at least in the heavenly places, will then have arisen in the heart.