Most of you, I take it, remember that we are at the moment engaged in a consideration of the interpretation of the 20th chapter of the book of Revelation. We have looked at the book in general as a part of our purpose of considering the biblical doctrine of the second coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And last week we began a particular consideration of the message in the teaching of this 20th chapter. Now what we did last week was to consider together what is probably the most popular and prevailing view of this chapter today, the so-called pre-millennial view of the return of our Lord. I spent the whole evening in putting that before you. in giving you an exposition of it, in stating it as a whole. There are minor differences of opinion amongst those who belong to that school of thought. We obviously can't go into them all in detail, and indeed it would be quite profitless to do so. But we tried therefore to give you a composite, general picture of what is believed and held by the majority. Now, as we closed last Friday, I suggested to you that certain things were evident at once about that view. I also, you remember, gave you a brief history of the doctrine as to how it had been held at various times during the centuries of the history of the Christian Church. But we ended by saying that clearly this view implies and involves certain things. It involves a literal interpretation of this chapter. It also involves us in teaching of at least two resurrections. And likewise, it involves us in at least two judgments. Well, now then, I want to take up that idea. In other words, as I promised, I would like to put before you, for your consideration, certain objections to that teaching. You see, we've been adopting this method right away through in the consideration not only of this doctrine, but of all the other doctrines. Nothing to me is more lamentable than that people should only know one view. Oftentimes, they're not even aware of the fact that there is another possible view, and are not aware of the fact that the view they hold has only come into being, say, about a hundred years. We've tried, therefore, to put the possible views before you, and given the reasons for and against, in order that we may be in a position to arrive at a balanced judgment as the result of careful consideration of these teachings and of prayer. Very well then, let me now, having put the view before you, suggest to you certain criticisms of it. There are quite a number. Here is one which is a very important one, obviously. It is a teaching which is found nowhere else in the Gospels or in the epistles of the New Testament. And that, of course, is agreed by all. There are no other references to this idea of an earthly kingdom with our Lord reigning in person on earth for a literal thousand years. There is no suggestion even of that anywhere else whatsoever in the New Testament. It is here and in this chapter alone. Now that of course is obviously a very serious point. Surely if you do believe in the unity of scripture, you would believe, you must believe that the scripture acts as a whole. and that when this particular doctrine of our Lord's second coming is dealt with in other parts of the scripture, well, if this earthly reign is an essential part of it, you would have thought that there would have been some suggestion or hint with regard to it, either in the teaching of our Lord himself or else in the teaching of his apostles. But the fact is that there isn't. It is found, the whole theory, the whole teaching, is based solely upon this 20th chapter of the book of the Revelation. That's one thing. Another thing is this, that this teaching makes the kingdom something earthly. Its emphasis is upon the earthly aspect of the kingdom, this world, and our Lord reigning physically in the body here in this world. It is an earthly conception, and in the descriptions, as I tried to show you, of the glory of this earthly reign, they surpass one another in their attempts to paint its glory and its wonder. But still, it is all earthly, and involves something that is to happen here on earth. You read the Gospels and our Lord's own teaching about his kingdom, and you cannot but be struck by the fact that he constantly emphasizes the fact that it is spiritual. And you find the same emphasis in the epistles. Now let's be clear about this. We do believe, and I'm going to try to show you that, that ultimately, as that third chapter of 2 Peter showed us at the beginning, ultimately, there is going to be a new heavens and a new earth. Yes, but that is after this present one shall have been described in the manner that Peter there describes. Whereas this earthly millennial reign talks about something that is to happen before that final end. And it's there, I say, that the conception of the kingdom is material and materialistic rather than spiritual. objection, it seems to me, is this one, that it postpones the idea of the kingdom to the future. They say this is the churchy, and you remember I pointed out to you that they say that Christ is not king at the moment, he's only the head of the church. The kingdom, they say, is entirely future. He offered it when he was here in the world, it was rejected. Then there is this interregnum. And there's no kingdom now, they say. The kingdom is to come. And it will come during this millennial reign. Whereas surely the scriptures themselves teach us that the kingdom is already present. And that those of us who are Christians are already in the kingdom of God. Listen to John, in the very first chapter of this book, putting it like this. He says, I, John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. Christians are already in the kingdom. The kingdom is to come in one sense, but the kingdom has come in another. And in any case, you remember constantly in the epistles, we know that Christians are described as those who have been translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son. We are already citizens of the kingdom of God. Very well then, it seems to me therefore that to postpone the whole idea of the kingdom to the future is really to contradict the scripture. Then I come to another objection which to me is one of the most serious of all. that entire view which tells us that not only will our Lord here reign for a thousand years in the flesh, but that the Jews will be given a great position of preeminence, and so on, here is something which is very serious, for it again introduces, reintroduces, that distinction between Jews and Gentiles which surely has been abolished. There was nothing that the Apostle Paul, in particular, so gloried in as that there is no longer Jew nor Gentile, barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free. The middle wall of partition has been broken down. The kingdom is now open to Gentiles as to Jews. The whole glory of the gospel, says Paul in the epistle to the Ephesians, is that the Gentiles are to be fell-aware. and fellow citizens in this glorious kingdom of God and of Christ. But here is a teaching that reintroduces a vital distinction between Jew and Gentile which they say is going to last throughout the whole of eternity. I find it, I must confess, quite impossible to believe this. I would have thought that the 11th chapter of Romans which we considered weeks and months ago, would be enough in and of itself. There is only one olive tree. Old Testament and new, it's the one olive tree. The Jews were the natural branches. They've been cut off. The others have been grafted in, but into the same olive tree. And the Jews are grafted in again when they become Christians. There's only one olive tree. There is no permanent distinction for all eternity between Jew and Gentile. That's gone. Once and forever the kingdom shall be taken from you said our Lord to the Jews and given unto a nation bearing forth the fruits thereof. That's the church and that is the form of the kingdom of God at the present time. The New Testament teaching is that all nations and tribes and tongues are to be in this kingdom. Even this book of Revelation teaches that. And indeed there is no suspicion of any difference between the Jew and the Gentile, even in this 20th chapter itself. As I'm going to point out to you later, Jews are not mentioned at all here. There is no mention of Jews nor Gentiles, so that it is something that is imported into the chapter which really has no place there at all, and is at the same time a contradiction of the general teaching of the whole of the New Testament. Then another point, of course, is that that idea teaches, as I've already suggested, several comings of our Lord. It seems that there are to be at any rate at least three comings, according to that view. If you believe in the preliminary rapture, there'll be three. If you don't, there are at least two. Whereas surely the whole of the remainder of the New Testament teaches that there is only to be one second coming of our Lord, the one that will be associated with the general resurrection of the dead and the final judgment. Where is the evidence for more than one coming of the Lord Jesus Christ? Now we've considered the argument as based on 1 Thessalonians 4 and 2 Thessalonians 2 already. But here again we have to mention it. So let me come to something which we have not dealt with so much. This view also teaches, as we saw last week, that there are also at least two resurrections, if not three. If you hold the preliminary rapture view, there are three resurrections. But if you don't hold that and are a premillennialist, well then there are two at any rate. and that there will be an interval of a thousand years at least between the resurrection of the good people and the resurrection of the bad people. That's the teaching, you remember. That the good, the believers, the Christians, they will be raised before the commencement or at the beginning of the thousand years reign, but that the unbelievers and the bad and the sinners will not be raised until the end of that period and even a little beyond that. Now, here is something, of course, which again is of vital importance. For it seems to me that this teaching comes into direct collision and is a direct contradiction of the teaching of our Lord and Savior himself. Listen to what he says in John 5, verses 28 and 29. Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth. They that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation. Where's the interval of a thousand years? Surely that's a perfectly clear statement. There is to be one general resurrection, good and bad together. and that is to be their faith. So that there our Lord clearly teaches that the good and the bad will rise together and at the same time. But then if you go on to the next chapter of John's gospel, chapter six, you will find that our Lord himself teaches that both the good and the bad are to be raised at the last day. not at the beginning of some millennial period, but at the very end, the very last day. Now, our Lord goes on repeating this. In the sixth chapter of John's Gospel, first you find it in verse 39. Listen. This is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. There's nothing after the last day. The last day is the last day, and he's going to raise those whom the Father has given him, the good, the believers, the Christians, at the last day, and not before. Then you will find that he repeats this in verse 40, in verse 44, and in verse 54. Now these are the words of our blessed Lord and Savior himself, that he is going to raise his own at that last day. And you will find exactly the same thing in the 11th chapter of John's Gospel in verse 24. Martha says, Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. That was the teaching. And our Lord adopted and used that current teaching. So that it seems to me that to say that there are two resurrections with an interval of over a thousand years between them and that there is the same interval between the rising of the good and the bad, it seems to me that it's just a sheer contradiction of what our Lord plainly teaches and which is indeed the teaching everywhere in the New Testament with regard to the resurrection and the last day and the final judgment. Then coming to another objection. Here is something, surely, that should constitute for the minds of all of us a very real difficulty. And there are many who hold this view, which we are now considering and criticizing, who admit, quite frankly, that it is a difficulty to them. If their teaching is right, well, then you are confronted with this, that at one and the same time there will be on the earth glorified saints I mean by that, people who have died as Christians, who will have been raised from the dead, and whose bodies will have been changed, and will have been glorified, they will be on the earth at the same time, saints in their glorified bodies, and other people who are still in the flesh, living together. Now, I find it impossible to conceive of death, that at one and the same time, You should have that and indeed add to that the presence of the Lord himself in all his glory. You remember what happened to Saul of Tarsus when he had just a glimpse of him. He fell on his back to the ground and yet we are told that there will be people in the flesh who shall not only see him but will be living with men and women changed and like him whose bodies will have been fashioned like unto his glorious body and all living together on the earth at the same time. It surely is a most serious difficulty with regard to that view. And another thing that seems to follow is this, that surely there must be some on the earth who are still sinners during this supposed glorious period. I say that for this reason. If there are not sinners left, well then, how can it possibly come to pass that the things described in verses 8 and 9 of this 20th chapter can ever take place? We are told that when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. Are we asked to believe that Satan by one stroke, as it were, can suddenly turn this tremendous multitude that is as numerous as the sand of the sea in this world into enemies of Christ? No, the suggestion surely must be that they were more or less enemies the whole time, and that their sin was merely held in a condition of restraint, so that the period is not as glorious as our friends would have us understand. But not only that, here is another of those to me insuperable obstacles. Is it conceivable that after our blessed Lord and Savior has been living and reigning in this world for a thousand years? Not now as the carpenter of Nazareth, remember, but as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, in all his heavenly glory and with his limitless power, Is it conceivable that after a thousand years of that, Satan, as it were, in the twinkling of an eye, can suddenly produce these hordes, masses of people, all over the world, as numerous as the sand of the sea, to fight Christ, and to be bitterly and violently opposed to him? Surely, it is a straining imagination, leave alone thought, to ask us to believe that such a thing is possible at all. It's just unthinkable and yet it is an essential part of that whole view which goes by the name of Chileism or by the pre-millennial name. Now there are a number of objections but now let us turn for a moment to that chapter we read at the beginning where it seems to me that the objections are more or less gathered together for us in a very convenient manner. Now, you notice that in that third chapter of the second epistle of Peter, we are told certain things quite plainly and explicitly. There is no hint or suggestion at all there, of course, of any millennial reign. Peter was writing to comfort these Christian people, They were being bothered by these scoffers who said, look here, you people say, and you've been saying it now for a number of years, that this king of yours, this Christ of yours is going to come back. Where is the promise of his coming? Look around you, they say. Everything's carrying on as it's always been. There's no sign of it at all. This is all nonsense, they said. It's a figment of your imaginations. You've been fooled. Peter writes to comfort those people on that very point. But there's not a word here about any millennial reign. No, no, all Peter tells us here is this. There's not a suspicion of a suggestion about a period during which sin is going to be kept in check and under restraint, not at all. All that Peter knows is this, that the day of the Lord is going to introduce that great conflagration which is going to mean the destruction of the world as we now know it. Evil and sin are going to be burnt right out of it. The heavens and the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. It all happens at the same time. That's all Peter knows about. And then the coming of the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. nothing whatsoever about this millennial reign. And as he indicates, there is none either in the writings of Paul. He refers, you remember, to the writings of his beloved brother Paul, who is dealing with these very selfsame questions. And there's not the nearest hint of it anywhere in the epistles of the great apostle. Not only that, you notice this. Peter says, but the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. This day, when the world that now is, is going to be burnt up with fire, says Peter, which will mean the end of all as we know it now, and then there'll be the introduction of this new heavens and new earth. All that, says Peter, is going to come as a thief in the night. But how can it come as the thief in the night if it's been preceded by a thousand years of Christ's presence in his glorified body here on the face of the earth? It can't come as a thief in the night then. The millennium itself will have warned us for a thousand years that it's going to come and we'll all be waiting for it. We'll have gone through the millennium. There'll be the little season when Satan is let free and we'll know that Christ's this day of the Lord is at him. so it cannot come any longer as a thief in the night. You see, the teaching directly contradicts the teaching of this important chapter. Not only that, we are told quite plainly here what we are to look forward to. We are to look forward to this day which is coming. This day which will not only be the day when the heavens and the earth shall be burnt by fire, but it is at the same time to be the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. In other words, we are exalted by the apostle to look forward to the one and only second coming of the Lord, which will also be the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men, which will also be the day of this great conflagration, when the elements will melt with fervent heat, etc., and the world will be destroyed as we now know it. So that surely, apart from anything else, this third chapter of 2 Peter ought to be sufficient in and of itself. to cause us to question most seriously this teaching which would interpret the 20th chapter of the book of Revelations in that particular way. But now let me put before you certain objections which arise from the chapter itself. I've so far been dealing with what I would call general objections from the analogy of Scripture. And we are always to compare Scripture with Scripture. You see, the Apostle Peter there, you remember, in that same chapter tells us that there are certain people who rest the writings of the Apostle Paul to their own destruction. They're unlearned and they're unstable. They're ready to believe anything that's told them. They haven't got a real knowledge of the Scripture. Well, I say we avoid that by growing in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord. We compare Scripture with Scripture. Scripture is one, and we must never interpret any one passage in such a way as to produce a blank contradiction to the teaching of other passages. That's the rule by which we are working. So now, having done it in general, come back to the chapter itself. There are, it seems to me, certain objections to this view of the chapter in the chapter itself. Now, let me put the first one in this way. Surely, as you read this chapter, you must come to the conclusion that the scene depicted by John, by the seer, is not on earth at all. It's a scene in heaven. And I saw an angel come down from heaven. You go back through the book and you'll find that he starts most of his fresh sections in some such way as that, and I saw. And here he sees, he's looking into heaven and he sees an angel coming down from him. Surely the scene is in heaven, but let me support that argument by this. He says in verse four, and I saw thrones. Now, as you read through this book of Revelation, you will find a number of references to thrones. And without a single exception, You will find every time that the thrones are in heaven. Not on earth, they are thrones in heaven. Go through the book for yourselves and make a list, make a note of all the references to thrones and you'll find invariably that the thrones are in heaven. Very well then, that should cause us to pause but add to that what I've already said this evening. There is not a single reference to earth in this chapter. Still less is there a reference to Palestine. Jerusalem isn't mentioned at all. The Jews simply don't figure here in any sense. And yet you see that interpretation which we are considering puts in the very center earth, Palestine, rebuilt Jerusalem, and the temple, and the Jews in a position of preeminence. There is not a suggestion of it here at all. You read this chapter and there is nothing whatsoever that should lead you to think of any one of such objects. And of course, the friends who hold the view admit that that is so. Well, where do they get it from, you say? Ah, well, you see, they have to say, ah, we get that in the Old Testament. We get those prophecies which say about this glorious time that is coming. And they say it must be here. So they put it in here. But the question is does John put it in there? Is there even a suspicion of a suggestion that it's meant to be here? I suggest to you that in the whole of this book there is nothing. I mean the book of Revelation. There is nothing which suggests earth or Palestine or Jews whatsoever. The scene is in heaven. Then another thing. We read in that first verse, I saw an angel come down from heaven having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the wagon, that old serpent which is the devil, and bound him a thousand years. Now, even the friends who hold this premillennial view, they are prepared to admit and to agree that all this about the chain is obviously symbolical. Satan, after all, is a spirit. Satan is a spirit. And they know that and they agree with that and therefore they say, well we've got to admit and we've got to agree that this talk about the chain must be interpreted symbolically because Satan is a spirit. So they grant that that must be interpreted symbolically. But from there on they reject the symbolical interpretation. Now surely that's inconsistent. Surely everything we are dealing with here is symbolic. and the way of true interpretation is not that which has to pick and choose in this way and for the sake of the convenience of a theory. If this chapter starts in this symbolical manner, why shouldn't it continue in the same manner? In other words, I would put this point to you. The numbers in this book, as we have seen many times, are obviously symbolical numbers. We've looked at a number And surely the same thing applies here. This number thousand, as we've seen, is a most important symbolical number. It suggests a period of completeness, a whole period, a long period, yes, but above all, a complete period, ten cubes. We've seen that elsewhere. There are many uses of the word thousand in this book of Revelation. Turn them up again for yourselves and you'll see that it's always used and done in a symbolical manner. Why should we suddenly literalize it here? When it has been symbolical right through, why does it suddenly become literal at this point? Then another, to me, very important point is this, again in verse four. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them. Then listen, and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus. You notice he says deliberately that he saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, which surely suggests this. that they were in a disembodied state. He does not say that he saw those who had been beheaded for the witness of Jesus raised and in their glorified bodies. If he meant that, why didn't he say that? But he doesn't say that. He says he saw their soul. Ah, but you say often in the Scriptures men and women in the flesh are referred to as souls. We are told of the number of the children of Israel that went down from Canaan to Egypt, that they were a given number of souls. I know that is done sometimes. People are described as souls, that there were 70 souls or something like that. But you notice that here we can't adopt that explanation for this reason. He says the souls of them. If he'd only said souls, well then that would have been a possible explanation. But he says the souls of them. There are the persons in the them. And he says I saw the souls of the persons. If a man says to me that he's seen the soul of a person, I can only draw one conclusion, that he hasn't seen the body of that person. Otherwise, why doesn't he say I saw the person? Why doesn't he just say, I saw them? But he says, I saw the souls of them. In other words, you see, it all suggests that the scene is in heaven where the departed souls are, of those who are in Christ and who have been true and faithful and have suffered for the witness and the testimony of Jesus. So this is a very vital point, John, in the chapter itself. The writer deliberately chooses the word soul. And he obviously must have some very good and cogent reason for doing so. Then another point which strikes anyone reading this chapter without presuppositions must be this. That this period of a thousand years, whatever the interpretation of it may be, is obviously something that precedes the final judgment. because you don't come to the final judgment in this 20th chapter until you come to verses 11 and 12, where we read, And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. How reminiscent of 2 Peter 3, isn't it? It's almost exactly the same thing. From whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. And the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. And he goes on to say, the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead that were in them. And they were judged, every man according to their works. Now that's the final judgment. And you see that here it comes after this period, after this 3,000 years. And therefore it involves that teaching in the most serious, not to say impossible, difficulties, because they have to reverse that. Whereas the chapter itself clearly puts the period of thousand years, whatever it may be, before this final judgment. And you see, at the same time, the chapter is not only in line with the second epistle of Peter, the third chapter, it is equally in line with Romans 8. With its great teaching, you remember, about the creature being made subject to bondage, not willing but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. Listen, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. Don't forget that here again Paul is comforting people who are having a hard and a difficult and a trying time and the comfort he holds out for them is Not that this is going to be a glorious period of a thousand years reign with Christ on earth. No, no. He says the thing we are looking forward to is this. The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first roots of the Spirit. We ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for what? for the millennial reign, no, for the adoption to wit the redemption of our body. And it's all put in terms of this final condition when the whole of creation will have been rid of evil and of sin by this conflagration which is coming and the new heavens and the new earth will have been ushered in wherein dwelleth righteousness. And again in Acts In the third chapter of the book of Acts, in the 21st verse, you get a reference to the same thing. Peter preaching after the healing of that lame man, you remember, really talks about this same period, this regeneration that's coming, this great period of refreshing. And that brings me to the last of these particular objections which I find in the chapter itself to this interpretation, which is this. that surely this interpretation presses its interpretation of what is meant by the binding of Satan for a thousand years, it presses it too far. We are told that he laid hold of the dragon, the angel laid hold of the dragon, that old serpent which is the devil and Satan and bound him a thousand years and cast him into the bottomless pit and shot him up. and set a seal upon him that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled. Now, I say that if you press the interpretation of that to me, that there will be no evidence of sin and evil at all in this world during that great period, well then, as I've already indicated, you are put into terrible difficulties in explaining how it comes to pass that Satan so easily, at the end of the thousand years, is able to persuade so many people, so many indeed that it looks as if the church is, and Christ alone, was going to be overwhelmed, and that it was necessary that there should be fire coming down out of heaven sent by God to devour them and to destroy them in order to save Christ and his people. Well, very well. There, it seems to me, are the objections to that pre-millennial interpretation of this 20th chapter of the book of Revelation. I indicated last Friday that there are two other possible interpretations, and it remains for us to consider them. I hope, therefore, next Friday, God willing, to consider with you what is called the post-millennial view. We've been dealing with the pre-millennial. We will look at the post-millennial view. That shouldn't take us very long. And then, having done that, I should like to give you a positive interpretation of this chapter, which is symbolical, which is spiritual, which is in line with our interpretation in general of the whole of the book, which we've already considered, is in line with our understanding of those prophecies of Daniel and of the various other prophecies of the New Testament, which we have already considered. Now that's our program. I hope to do those two things next Friday evening. and then that will enable us to make a final statement about this question of the time of our Lord's coming and will lead us on to a brief consideration of the doctrine of the resurrection and the last ultimate state of glory in which we who belong to the Lord shall spend our eternity. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we again come before Thee, and we come to acknowledge not only our own weakness and unworthiness and frailty, we come to acknowledge our indolence, and our failure to read and to study thy word as we ought. But, O God, we come also to thank thee, and to bless and praise thy name for all that thou hast provided for us. O God, give us grace, we pray thee, and light by thy Spirit, that as we again consider these things, and reflect upon what we have considered tonight, that we may have understanding, and grant, O God, that we all may have but one great idea, and that is not to prove that we are right or that others are wrong, but that we may see what thou hast planned for us and for the world, that we may look for this great day that is coming and ask ourselves the question, what sort of people should we be hastening unto and looking for? the coming of this great day of thine. O Lord, we pray thee therefore that we may have the strength and the power necessary that we may grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord, so that we may be worthy of thee now. And when the great day comes, as a thief in the night, we shall not be found unprepared. Lord, bless us to that end and pardon and forgive all the imperfections of our service. We ask it pleading nothing but the name and the merit of thy dear Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And now, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship and the communion of the Holy Spirit abide and continue with us now, throughout the remainder of this our short uncertain life, and earthly pilgrimage, and until the day come, and we shall see Him face to face. Amen.