CHARACTER OF THE MILLENNIUM. [No. I.] MR. EDITOR,-Shall I be allowed to express a few thoughts that have occurred to me on the subject of the millennium? I do this the more readily, because, as yet, you have said but little in your columns upon the subject. And yet you are aware that the question is canvassed with great interest in both this and the old world. A blissful period has been before the eye of the church for two thousand years. Nay, more-it was looked for by the Jews in most of their interpretations of the prophets; and it has been looked for more or less steadily by the church ever since that period. It fired the martyr as he went to the stake, and sustained the more private Christian, in the hour of heavy persecution, with the hope of "a better resurrection," and which would give an ample return for all their sufferings. But to the point at issue. I think that the majority of Christians will take one or other of the following positions, if they take any at all on the subject; namely, that the millennium will be either, 1. Nothing more than the universal diffusion of the gospel, accompanied with great prosperity in earthly things; and the conversion of most of the Jews that may at that time be alive, and, perhaps, with their return to Palestine: or, 2. That it shall be ushered in by the personal appearance of the Son of God; the resurrection of the just; the "sitting" or commencement of the judgment in some form, and the renovation of the earth by fire, or the new heavens and the new earth; and the establishment of Christ's everlasting kingdom on earth, which becomes the final abode of the blessed. I know other views have obtained: but I 'judge all who canvass the subject, will embrace, from necessity, one or other of the above views. There will be but little halfway matter about it. To the one or the other, all, as I think, must yield. I adopt the last of these views; and, with your indulgence, I will give you some reasons that have conducted me to this conclusion. 1. And, first, I remark, that sentiments similar to the last-named obtained in the church very generally during the first three centuries of the Christian era. Indeed, from the second epistle to the Thessalonians, it is demonstrable that some expected the revela tion of the Lord Jesus Christ with the associate circumstances-this millennium-in their day; but in the time of the event they were mistaken, and were, in the second epistle of Paul to the church named, corrected by the apostle. The doctrine, however, of the personal appearance of Christ, with the setting up of his kingdom ON THE EARTH, after its renovation, spread throughout the church during this period, and very generally obtained credence. And Gibbon without question is correct in his statement, and records merely a matter of Roman history, when he says, that the idea of Christ's personal appearance, and reign, and speedy coming, was prevalent throughout the Roman empire among Christians during the first centuries. And Bishop Watson doubtless attempted too much when he essayed to wrest this argument from him. What if this view did contribute to the spreading of Christianity, and hasten the decline of the Roman Empire? May not God speak of "things that are not as though they were? One day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." If the Spirit of God saw such an event ahead a thousand years, or two thousand years, he might speak of it as "at hand," and trespass not upon the use of language common to the prophets. Do what we will, we must come to this conclusion, if we allow consistency to all or either of the books of the New Testament. It is the very lan guage of St. John. All he saw was "shortly to come to pass,' " "at hand," " "quickly;" and yet his events reach, as all admit, to the resurrection of the dead. But if this sentiment did not obtain throughout the Roman empire, why did the Emperor Domitian (A. D. 80-96) become alarmed, and send for some of the relatives of our Lord, in the line of David, and inquire of them what kind of a kingdom they expected, and when it would be? And why were his fears somewhat abated when he was told by them that it was not a "terrestrial kingdom, but celestial, and that its time was the end of the world?"-not regarding, as says the narrator, "the kingdom which was to come,' if he might be allowed to have that which is now here. Now, it is at least probable, that the great outlines of this doctrine that thus spread among Christians, were the result of apostolic preaching and writing, and of course true. Thus we argue in all points when we lean upon the fathers. We cannot argue that it is true in detail-for it were an easy task to mix error with truth-but its grandest features were probably from Christ and the apostles. But if its broader features were from them, as they must be to have obtained so early, they furnish a conclusion fatal to the idea of any other millennium than |