HOWEVER gigantic the dimensions, both of all land and all sea, on this earth may seem to us, yet the whole earth is infinitesimally small compared with the sun. And as the sun is, so there are thousands and ten thousands of fixed stars. And however far the human eye has traveled to study those fixed stars, the end of the universe has never yet been discovered.
God’s majesty is so endlessly, so namelessly great, and we, (of the Netherlands) who already lose ourselves in our small country upon that small earth in our insignificance, what are we before Him Who by one word of power called that Universe into existence, and likewise again by one word of that same Almightiness shall make it turn and change in fashion and form of existence!
Already the Psalmist was impressed by that overwhelming thought, when he sang: “Of old Thou hast laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Thy hands. They shall perish, but Thou shalt remain standing. And they shall all wax old as a garment. Thou shalt change them and as a vesture they shall be changed” (102, 25).
With Isaiah it reads the same: “All the hosts of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll; and all their hosts shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree” (Isaiah 34, 4).
And over that “change” of heaven and earth Jehovah triumphs, as He Himself testifies to His servant: “Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment; but my salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not be broken” (Is. 51, 6).
So also the apostle of the Lord declares unto us: “The world passeth away with everything desirable it has before our eye, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever” (1 Jno. 2, 17). And though here we can not reproduce the broad portrayal of the vision of Patmos, clearly and circumstantially also another apostle testifies to us, that they who belong to Jesus, “look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness; that once the heavens, which now are, and the earth by the same word, that once created this world, shall be surrendered to fire; and that then the heavens shall be dissolved, and the elements burning shall melt, and the earth and the works, that are therein, shall be brought to nought” (2 Peter 3:7, 11, 12, 13).
This has been called a world conflagration, and a world conflagration it shall be, and only from that world conflagration shall that new form appear, in which the realm of glory shall eternally and always glisten.
THIS can no more sound strangely in our ears, for already the past tells us of such dreadful changes, which in former ages, have taken place upon this earth, that no one of us would recognize the present form of the world, if his eye were able to see what this world has been.
Also the investigators of the earthcrust and the searchers of the firmament themselves concede, that an entire change in the form of this world belongs in every way to the probabilities, only diverging in this, that one foresees a cooling off and a freezing to death of all life upon earth, while the other, with the Scripture, thinks of a final destruction by fire.
Already now we walk on fire. Fire vomiting mountains, hot springs, ascending gases, it all gives the certainty, that underneath the thin earthcrust, on which we live, one glowing mass hides itself, which by a wider breach would merely need to receive air, to burst out into flames, and start the great world conflagration.
Yet what Scripture announces as coming is still more majestic: not only a bursting into flame of this small earth, but one great, one mighty cataclysmic turning upside down of all the starry hosts. A break in the whole order of the stars in their courses, accompanied by a friction of all matter and gases, only from this wholesale whirling about of all existing things, to have an entirely new order come forth, a far more glorious world, a still thousand times more beautiful universe.
And what ends all, this Scripture prophesies, not to satisfy our curiosity, neither to prepare us for terrible things to come, but, altogether otherwise, to wean us from the false attachment to the less beautiful of this form of the world, and to fix the eye of our soul upon that far more majestic glory, which once awaits all who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
Our ideal stands so much higher than the highest this world can offer us. They who are not incorporated in Jesus are infatuated with the beauty of this world, which now is, as though nothing could excel it. To the holy apostle, on the other hand, every creature in this world groans, because it is subjected to vanity, and as with uplifted head awaits that far more beautiful, that far richer glory, which only comes, when the liberty of the children of God shall dawn.
And therefore it is one calling, one warning throughout all Scripture: Give not to this world your heart, but look to the far more glorious inheritance, which is laid up for you and which is kept for you in the heavens.
This world passeth away, with all the desirables it offers you, and then comes the new heaven and the new earth.
What manner of people then, O ye children of God, ought ye to be, in holy, heavenly walk?
INCOMPREHENSIBLE to us such a “change” of existing things is not.
Scripture itself compares it to the change of a garment, which, worn out and soiled, is no more sightly, and is fit to be cast off, and now by the fuller’s hand is so effectively purified and renovated, that it comes back to you in all its former beauty and as new to the eye.
And also, we know the purifying, the renewing of pieces of metal by fire. Rusty and unsightly ironwork regains in fire its newness and brightness, and thus melted in fire and cast into a new mold, glistens again before the eye in its metal fairness and intactness of form.
And why should not God be able to do with all His world, what the fuller does with the garment and the iron-founder with the piece of metal work?
True, the greatness of the range, the extensiveness of the dimensions, the giganticness of the firmament, make us dizzy. But does not God Almighty stand far higher above all the work of His creation than the fuller above his washtub or the smith above his forge?
He who can make anything, can also remake it. He Who can create, can also re-create. And however majestic in its greatness the universe may seem to us, before God it is deemed as nothing. Are not the nations to Him as a drop of water on a bucket, or as a dust in the scales?
And have you not thought sometime, that however great the world may be, God Himself is still ten and a hundred times greater than that whole world, yea, that even so you have but stammered of the greatness of your God? What then shall there be wonderful in it for your God, to melt as one mighty instrument that whole universe, and presently rejuvenated, renewed and cast into a still more glorious form, to place it before Himself and before His saints?
WITH us lies the fault, that in the main we cherish thoughts far too great of this world, and far too small of the Lord our God.
Not only people of the world do this, but also Christian people, too inert of spirit, to meditate on the glory of their inheritances, or to inlive what Scripture prophesies so clearly and circumstantially.
Surely, you should not underestimate your calling in the things of this world, much less neglect them. So long as God leaves you in this dispensation, you have in this dispensation to serve your God, diligently and faithfully.
But with all this it must ever stand clearly before your eyes, that not only this earth but also all her works shall perish. Most beautiful palaces, most imposing cathedrals, wonders of technics, greatest creations of art, every house, every village, all cities, and everything that human hand has wrought therein,—it is merely for a time, and as once Babylon and Nineveh went to nought, so likewise presently everything our wondrous age created goes to nought.
And therefore, you must be diligent and also faithful in the work here given you to do, but you must not permanently attach yourself to it. You must not attach yourself to it. You should understand and see, that what now glitters before us, is merely yet the flickering of candlegleam, compared to that sunny splendor of glory, in which once the whole creation of God shall be immersed.
Here this little glory for a time; yonder once the full glory, and that forever! Thus stands the choice.
Why hesitancy still on the part of God’s saints?
Your ideal can not lie in what ages and once changes, in what God shall once melt. It must lie in what shall then begin, when your God shall have brought His re-creation to a finish.
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