J. G. Broughton Pegg

“ The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of his people. ”

“ The civil government of an empire is not the source of all wisdom, love, and prosperity, as the sun is of heat, light, and fruitfulness. It does not give to the ecclesiastical all its power, glory, and beauty, as the sun does to the moon; nor would the church become dead and lifeless if separated from the state, as the moon would if severed from the sun. The pastors of the church, which it is affirmed are the stars, do not, like the stars, shine with their own native splendor. ”

“ As the moon derives all {76} her light from the sun, so does true faith draw all its glory from love. As the moon separated from the sun's influence, is dark and lifeless, so is faith without love, dead and useless. And as the light proceeding from the moon is but the rays of the sun reflected from her surface, so is the faith that springs from a modification of the love of God, a reflection of his infinite benevolence. ”

“ Mutability is liability to change, or a continual tendency to remove from one state to another. Whatever is changeable, or whatever can experience alteration, is, therefore, mutable. But this mutability attaches not to material nature alone, but to all creation; the highest archangel in the highest heaven, as well as every spirit embodied on earth, is a mutable creature. The state of glory in the eternal world, as well as the state of man below, is a state of mutability,—a state in which there are continual changes either for the better or the worse. ”

“ As the stars are of the same nature with the sun, and like him shine with their native and proper light, so is the wisdom of God of the same nature with his love; both being essential attributes of Divinity. As the stars, however, though in themselves splendid bodies, communicate no heat to the earth, and are but of secondary importance in comparison with the sun and moon, so does the mere knowledge of truths, (although the truths in themselves possess the nature of divinity,) leave the soul as cold and lifeless as before ”

“ If we will, in despite of reason, found a doctrine on the literal meaning of the texts, we must adhere to that meaning; for to depart from it, is to confess its insufficiency: and if, on the other hand, we resolve to reject the literal sense in one part, we then acknowledge that it is not the true one, and that another must be sought for. If we are obliged to give up a literal falling of stars to the earth, and a literal appearance in the clouds of the air, then we must give up also, a literal burning and destruction of the universe ”

“ Could we rise far into the regions of space, and ascend for ever in the oceans of worlds, still, as regards distance, we should be no nearer heaven than before. Where God manifests Himself in the fullness of his love, there is heaven; but God being a Spirit, can only manifest Himself thus in a spiritual region; and such a region has no relation of space or distance with a world of matter. Hence, therefore, a descent from heaven is not a literal going down from a higher place to one beneath, and consequently must not be literally understood. Here the literal meaning fails at the very threshold. ”

“ Since it is believed that the succession of man will cease with this earth, why should another earth be formed? Is another race of men to be created? This, the strongest advocates of the doctrine do not even suppose. Is it, then, to be the habitation of the righteous of the present earth? This, it cannot be, for the bodies of the departed will no longer be material, but spiritual; and to assert that a spiritual substance can dwell and walk on a material earth, however pure that earth may be, is to assert what every one sees to be preposterous. ”

“ If we compare a mighty empire in its rise, glory, and decline, to an oak springing up, flourishing for centuries, and then decaying, we use figurative language; since both the empire and the oak are natural objects, which have no real connection with each other, and between which the resemblance is only imaginary. But when the Creator is likened to the sun, the language is no longer figurative but correspondent. ”

“ In a word, if we were called upon to name the most important agent in the material world, our thoughts would turn at once to the sun. Now, in the spiritual world, including both the church of God and the individual spirit of man, what is that which produces the same effects as the natural sun does in the system of matter? What is the source of love and wisdom, spiritual heat and spiritual light?—What is it that produces in the mind those fruits of righteousness which are the characteristics of true religion? ”

“ In one of these every island shall flee away, and the mountains will not be found. Meanwhile all the waters of the terraqueous globe will feel the violence of these concussions. The sea and the waves roaring, with such an agitation as had never been known before since the hour that `the fountains of the great deep were broken up' to destroy the earth, which then stood 'out of the water and in the water!' The air will be all storm and tempest, full of dark vapors, and pillars of smoke resounding with thunder from pole to pole, and torn with ten thousand lightnings. ”

“ Such, in substance, is the doctrine of the Christian world; and certainly if fear and terror were sufficient to drive men into a state of righteousness, here are horrors enough to excite the fears even of the most courageous. But not the eloquence of man any more than his wrath, worketh the righteousness of God. It is not sufficient that a doctrine be eloquently set forth; it must also have truth for its foundation. It is not enough that Scripture be quoted to support it; that Scripture must also stand in its proper connexion, and retain its proper meaning ”

“ But fully as great an absurdity is involved in the literal interpretation of the words before us. The stars, though to us they appear but as shining atoms, are proved beyond the possibility of doubt, to be equal to our sun both in size and splendor. Each one of them is, in fact, a sun, as large and as brilliant as that which enlightens our day. Now the sun exceeds our earth nearly ten hundred thousand times in magnitude; each star, therefore, may be reasonably supposed to exceed the size of this globe nearly a million times. ”

“ What benefit can mankind derive from the destruction of this material world? The answer of some will be ready. "The world" they tell us, "has been changed by sin, and it will be dissolved in order that it may be restored to its pristine glory and beauty;—that a new heaven and a new earth may spring from its ashes." But does the change here supposed in the constitution of the world, require its dissolution? When sin entered into the universe, and the mind of man was contaminated, an immediate and corresponding effect was produced upon the world of matter ”

“ That FAITH and the knowledge of truth generally go together, is certainly true,—even as the moon and stars shine at the same time. But to know the truth is one thing, and to have faith in God is another and widely different thing; as different as the light of the stars is from that of the moon. ”

“ If, then, such a dissolution of the earth as Christians in general look for, will neither benefit mankind in time nor in eternity, then it is contrary to the character of God that He should bring such an event to pass; for He never operates unless to effect some benevolent purpose; and this will effect none, either here or hereafter.
The same reasons which induced the Almighty to call the universe into existence, will therefore induce Him to continue its existence. The desire which He felt to make as many rational beings as possible happy, led to creation. ”

“ As well, then, may we talk of ten thousand worlds falling upon an atom, as of ten thousand suns, each of them a {25} million times larger than the globe, falling upon this grain of earth: it is in itself as impossible as for a piece of bread to become the body of the Lord.
But further; the number of these bodies is beyond the power of human calculation. Millions sink into nothing in computing it,—thousands of millions are nothing. Every part of the vault of heaven contains myriads; and clusters of them have been observed which contain, within themselves, myriads more. ”

“ Could we penetrate into the depths of space, as far as the eye could see—as far as thought could penetrate, we should find suns and worlds till the mind was lost in the idea of their multitude: and though we continued to move onward for ages, we should still find ourselves but on the threshold of creation. ”

“ Whenever the earth is dissolved, the kingdoms of the world will be no more; and he cannot reign over that which has no existence! If, then, the world and its kingdoms are to be destroyed, He can never reign for ever over them: or if He will thus reign for ever over the kingdoms of the world, then those kingdoms must exist for ever; and if the kingdoms exist for ever, the world on which they are founded must exist for ever with them. ”

“ This meaning, to which we are led by the connexion and correspondence of the natural symbols, points to a time (not when the universe shall be destroyed, but) when true religion shall have ceased to exist in the church:—"when the love of many shall wax cold:" when true faith will no longer be found; and when knowledge—the knowledge of genuine spiritual truth—shall have passed away. ”

“ But the expected dissolution of the universe, and the end of human succession, will at once put a stop to this infinite design. If, after a certain number of persons have been born into the world, the procreation of man must end, then the purpose of creation cannot be infinite; for that which has reference to a certain number and a definite period of time, is not an infinite purpose; and that which is not an infinite purpose, is not the off-spring of infinite love. Or, if the purpose of God in creation did spring from infinite love, then it must be an infinite purpose ”

“ And, in fact, the promise that a flood should no more destroy the world, would have afforded little consolation to Noah, had he understood that another destruction more awful than the former, was approaching, in which not this world only, but the whole universe would perish; and when not the greater part, but all things living, would be destroyed, without the preservation even of a remnant. ”

“ When the earth is "filled with the knowledge of the Lord,"—when all shall experimentally "know Him from the least even unto the greatest,"—when man is again restored to his former state of peace and purity, a corresponding change must once more take place in his material habitation; but that change requires no destruction of the world to effect it. ”

“ As the sun shines in the atmosphere and produces fruit on the earth, so love shines in the soul and brings forth effects in the conduct, either in the case of an individual, or of the church as an assembly of individuals. By the same rule of analogy we may perceive what is meant by the clouds. These in the natural world, are vapors exhaled from the earth by the heat of the sun; and which condensed into form in the atmosphere, serve to perform their important {82} functions. They temper and lessen in some degree the heat of the sun; they serve to beautify the appearance of the heavens ”

“ Heaven, or the atmosphere, is that in which the sun, moon, and stars appear; and by means of which they produce their effects. It is the grand reservoir of those particles, which, acted upon by the sun, and thus set in motion, cause heat; and preserve on the earth, life and vegetation. ”

“ And as God is unchangeable, that desire must operate as powerfully ten thousand ages hence, as it does now; and the operation of that desire must, as a necessary consequence, lead to the preservation of this earth, from which a succession of rational creatures is to spring. If, then, at a future period the world is destroyed, and the multiplication of the human race ceases, it must be either because the Lord is unable to save more, or is unwilling to do it. ”

“ Having obtained the meaning of this principal symbol, we shall be at no loss to determine that of the other. "The moon," as regards apparent splendor, is the second great luminary in the visible heavens. In herself, however, she is a dark body, and possesses no power of communicating light except by the reflection of the sun's beams. In this case, therefore, we have to seek a second principle in the heaven of the church, corresponding with this second light in the heaven of matter; a principle which, though it enlightens and cheers the soul, has no brightness in itself ”

“ It is well known to all who are acquainted with philosophy, that each {26} of the heavenly bodies possesses a power called attraction, by which it draws towards itself any smaller body that comes within its sphere. So powerful is this attractive force that the sun alone draws all the worlds which move around it, and keeps them from flying off, though some are at the distance of eighteen hundred millions of miles! ”

“ But if the earth on which this church exists, is hereafter to dissolve and pass away, the kingdom must pass away with it. For though it is true that the just in heaven would still constitute a kingdom of the Lord, yet that kingdom would no longer be "the kingdom of David." The very declaration that the kingdom of the Lord on earth will never be destroyed, supposes as a necessary consequence, that the earth on which it is erected will also continue to exist. ”