Part 18

Paul says, "When that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away." (I Cor. xiii.) Prophecy and tongues and the gifts of the Gospel imperfectly enjoyed by man in his weakness were never designed to be done away until we come to enjoy a more perfect fullness, "when we see as we are seen and know as we are known." Zephania says: "For then will I turn to the people a pure language that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one consent." (Zeph. iii:9.) The pure language was confounded at the tower of Babel, because men sought to thwart the purposes of Jehovah. When the time comes that the wicked who will not obey are swept from the earth, the Lord will restore to His children the language which they learned from their mother tongue and which was spoken from Adam to the time of the tower of Babel. He will also unite the great bodies of water into a mighty ocean and roll it back to its place in the North, while the lands of the earth will be reunited and become one vast continent.

Isaiah says, speaking of the land of Zion, which is the Western hemisphere, and the land of Jerusalem, on the Eastern continent: "Thou shalt no more be termed forsaken, neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate; but thou shalt be called Hephzi-bah, and thy land Beulah: for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married." (Isa. lxii:4.) In other words, the lands shall be united. What a glorious period and condition! The earth geographically restored, spiritually redeemed and politically exalted to the government of God. John, the revelator, prophesied: "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever." (Rev. xi:15.) And again, in the twentieth chapter, fourth verse, "And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands: And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years."

The further writings of the apostle John in the Apocalypse describe the conditions of peace during the Millennium, and subsequently the last resurrection, the change of the earth, the banishment of Lucifer therefrom, and the earth celestialized as man's eternal abode, our heaven. The apostle Peter says "the elements shall melt with fervent heat," and John the apostle informs us that the earth shall become as a sea of glass, a great Urim and Thummim. What a joyous consummation to the labors of the faithful, in the great and marvelous blessings that will bring such glory to those that serve the Lord and to their heavenly abode!

Transcriber's Note

Various apparent printer's errors (e.g. "whem" for "when") and mismatched quotation marks have been resolved as seemed reasonable.

End of Project Gutenberg's Cowley's Talks on Doctrine, by Matthias F. Cowley