"The Age to Come"
BY JOSEPH MARSH
ROCHESTER, N. Y., PUBLISHED AT THE ADVENT HARBINGER OFFICE 1851
RESURRECTION OF THE SAINTS
will take place. This will be the first work of the great Restorer, when he shall return to this fallen world.
And why should it not? For his children are the price of his blood, his precious jewels, who have fallen
under the power of death ~~ lost their lives; and the Restitution could not be perfect without restoring
them to life.
How joyful that long looked for and greatly desired hour, when, at the voice of the archangel, and trump
of God, all the saints who sleep in Jesus will awake to life, and with the living, waiting saints, put on
immortality, and rise with attending angels to meet their descending Lord. In view of this glad, ecstatic
moment, Job, in his affliction, exclaimed:
All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee.
Thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands. .... For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he
shall stand in the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my
flesh shall I see God; whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though
my reins be consumed within me. Job. xiv. 14, 15; xix. 25-27.
Looking forward to this triumphant day, Isa. said: 'Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body
shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs; and the earth
shall cast out her dead.' Isa. xxvi. 19.
In view of the opening glories of this day of Restitution, Daniel was told, that
'Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life;' and that
he should 'stand in his lot' at that time. Dan. xii. 2, 13.
Hosea, speaking of the redemption of Israel from the grave, at the commencement of the 'times of
Restitution,' uses the following strong and cheering language:
'I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. O death, I will be thy
plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction. Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.' Hos. xiii. 14.
Speaking of this same glorious time, Christ said: 'They who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that
world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: neither can they die
any more: for they are equal unto the angels, and are the children of God, being children of the
resurrection. Luke xx. 35, 36.
That this glorious work will be accomplished at the coming of Christ, when the times of Restitution begin,
is evident from the following passages of Scripture:
'Christ the first fruits; afterwards they that are Christ's at his coming.' 'Behold, I show you a mystery: we
shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump;
for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.' 'For this
corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruption
shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass
the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is
thy victory? 1 Cor. xv. 23, 51-55.
'For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, and remain unto the coming of
the Lord, shall not prevent them who are asleep; for the Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout,
with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then
we who are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the
air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.' 1 Thess. iv. 15-17.
How cheering to the afflicted, confiding Christian, are these great and precious promises. In view of their
fulfillment, well might the apostle add, ~~
'Wherefore, comfort one another with these words.'
To prove that there will be a literal . . .