Revelation 21:5-8 And he that sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said to me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.… I. THE DIVINE METHOD OF EFFECTING THE GREAT CHANGE. 1. It is spiritual. The evils which exist here are either the direct fruits of sin, or the necessary means of moral discipline for its removal. A remedy for them must be found, not in miraculous interference with the established order of nature, but in the gospel of salvation. 2. The gospel begins by regenerating man himself. The Spirit of God touches his heart, quickens his intellectual nature, kindles the imagination, develops the reasoning faculties, and imparts a desire for knowledge. 3. Herein is found the principle which is to regenerate society, which is to be the basis of a true civilisation. Even the science, so called, which scoffs at both God and revelation, owes to Christian schools its culture, to a Bible-taught people the ability to understand and use it, and to the generous protection of Christian laws the liberty to assert itself in defiance of the most sacred convictions of mankind with impunity. 4. Other millennial blessings are the abolition of the great social evils which have hitherto cursed the world — war, and slavery, and intemperance, and lust. The only effective way to reach these and similar evils is to make men themselves better. 5. But it is not alone the moral and social renovation of the world that is to be effected; it is the physical as well. The same power that makes man's heart new will ultimately make his body new, and so abolish disease and premature death. II. THE PROGRESS WHICH HAS BEEN MADE IN THE PAST TOWARDS THIS PROMISED RESULT. It was a hard soil in which Christianity, the Divine mustard-seed, was dropped eighteen hundred years ago. What was the reception He met with? Not frigid indifference, but violent opposition. At last the world was startled to hear that even Caesar himself had bowed at the feet of the Nazarene, and, by imperial decree, placed the hated religion on the throne of the empire. II. WHAT IS YET TO BE DONE, AND WHAT IS THE PROSPECT AS TO ITS COMPLETION? 1. The whole world is to become known and accessible to Christian nations. 2. Christianity is soon to become the sole religion of mankind. All others are on the wane. 3. Christianity is rapidly increasing in power. 4. Christianity, as never before, is inspiring the powers of the world, and directing them to the improvement of mankind. Science, art, commerce, wealth, are her handmaids. She is using them all to make the world better, and man happier. 5. Only one thing is wanting more, and that is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Church and the nations. 6. The grand hope and expectation of the Church as to the future becomes thus more than an object of faith. (J. P. Warren, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. |
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