The object of the selection of this Seed is the blessing of all the families of the
earth; and this will be the work of the incoming Millennial Age. (Point.) We
have had enough of the Devil’s kingdom; enough of the Devil’s work; enough
of evil, and we are glad that the time will soon be here when Christ’s Kingdorn
will be fully set up and established in the earth-when He will take unto Him-
self His great power and reign.
Another figure, used by the Apostle Peter in referring to the Church selected in
this Age and her close relationship to Christ, is that of “living stones” in God’s
Temple, Christ being the Chief Corner-Stone. The various members of the
Church are now being tried and purified, chiseled and polished, for their places
in that glorious Temple. (Compare with Solomon’s temple, the preparalion of
the material beforehand, and its putting together noiselessly, without the sound
of a hammer, ax or any tool of iron. I Pet. 24-8; 1 Kings 6:7)
The members oF the Church, the “living stones” in the Temple, are not joined
to Christ one by one throughout the Age, but each is prepared and awaits the
final putting together, when all the stones are ready, and when Christ receives
thern to Himself. So the Apostle Paul looked forward to the future for his re-
ward, saying, “Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness,
which the Lord, the Righteous Judge, will give me AT THAT DAY” (point to
Millennial Age)-the FIRST Age of the New Dispensation, at the beginning of
which Christ commences His Millennial Reign. We believe that this Reign is
just at hand.
Then will come the blessing upon all the families of the earth. “He must reign
till He hath put all anemies under His feet. ” ( 1 Cor. 15:25) Hence His Coming
MUST BE PRE-Millennial. Were He to wait until all things were put under
His feet, and come at the close of the Millennium, this statement would not be
true; for there would be nothing left for Him to subdue. One of the first acts of
His reign will be to bind Satan-which is plainly stated in the 20th chapter of
Revelation-“I saw an angel come down from heaven, having a great chain in
his hand; and he laid hold on the dragon, that old Serpent, which is the Devil
and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, that he should deceive the nation
no more.” Then Christ’s Reign begins; and all who gained the victory over the
Beast and his image (apostate religious systemsj and received not his mark-all
the overcomers-will “live and reign with Christ a thousand years.”- Rev. 20:4.
(Here call attention again to the necessity of “rightly dividing the Word of
Truth,” to the meaning of the word Millennium, and to the impropriety of ap-
plying passages relating to the Millennial Age or to the Jewish Age to the Gos-
pel Age, or vice versa.)