"By fire and by His sword will the Lord plead with all flesh: and the slain of the Lord shall be many" -- Isaiah 66:16

The disasters that await the world are fearful. The present is only a fitful hurricane under which the trees of the forest have bowed their lofty heads but have not been uprooted.

The coming storm will be a tornado of thunder, lightning, wind and hail, of burning coals that will carbonize the Old Man to the very bones. "There shall be," saith Yahweh Tzvaoth, "A time of trouble such as there never was since there was a nation to that same time" (Dan. 12:1).

This is a trouble second only to the flood. By the flood, the whole race was hurled into perdition, except only the family of Noah.

In the coming trouble the race is not to be reduced to one family, for "many nations" after the subsidence of the storm, are to (Zech. 2:11), "Be joined to Yahweh and to be His people."

It will be a national tribulation, which will fall with pain upon the head of the wicked; upon kings, princes, nobles, eclesiastics, the wealthy, and those who are concerned in their enterprises and schemes.

Nations were inaugurated at Babel (Gen. 11:9), and with the overthrow of Babylon, or Babel, their power is to be annihilated beyond the possibility of permanent restoration.

Fearful and great indeed will this tribulation be. Trade, manufacture and commerce will be so affected as to fill the streets with starving multitudes, and to empty the rich of capital and power. Terror will be on every side and none of the Old Man's adherents will escape. The disasters of this consummation of panic will overwhelm them.

The banks will be closed and sealed: Wall Street, the Bourse, and the Royal Exchange will be scattered to the winds; courts will be shut up; the pulpits of all Christendom emptied of all incumbent hypocrites and cheats, hood-winkers of the people. Thrones will fall and the armies that sustain them will melt the hills and mountains politic with their blood.

This will be the disaster of the vengeance in Yahweh's heart in the year of His redeemed (Isa. 63:4; 34:8).

In the coming tribulation, all ranks, orders, classes, and degrees of men will be involved in one common ruin. It will be far worse for them than the breaking up of the Western Roman Empire by the Northern Barbarians over 1200 years ago. The Old Man of the Flesh recovered from the horrors of that terrible period, and has become rich and powerful again. But from the coming overthrow, he will never recover.

He will continue in life, but only to lead a life of poverty and contempt. The power and riches he now possesses, the position and respectability he is now so proud of, and the paraphernalia of wisdom and sagacity he so ostentatiously exhibits, will all be stripped from his leprous carcass and his nakedness made apparent to all.

To perform this work of love and charity, for it IS love and charity to them that suffer, to unmask hypocrisy, to make the truth apparent, and to bind the oppressor in the bondage of poverty and weakness; to perform this is the mission of the Son of Mary.

Alluding thereto, she said in the rejoicing of her spirit: "He helps His servant, Israel, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for the Aion" (Luke 1).

The reader will certainly be at no loss to conceive the nature of the times when "the Son of Yahweh's handmaid" (as David styles him in Psa. 86:16 and 116:16), shall appear to establish his mother's prophecy.

Will not financiers, potentates, merchants and traders in the souls and bodies of men be then filled with dismay, and call upon the mountains and rocks to fall upon them and hide them from the presence of this destroyer of the peace and successful villainy of the world?

We have read in the papers how many of Mammon's worshippers have committed suicide because of their losses by the recent panic. What then may we not expect to hear of in that coming tribulation?

The royal families of Europe, insular and continental, popes, cardinals, archbishops, and bishops, and all rulers, are to be hurled from their thrones, and probably all of them made to expiate the crimes of their houses, after the example of the kings whom Joshua slew by the halter or the sword. Their "houses" have been murderers of the saints and red with the blood of Israel. "Come near," said Joshua to the captains of Israel's hosts, "put your feet upon the necks of these kings. Fear not, nor be dismayed; be strong and of good courage, for thus shall Yahweh do to all your enemies against whom ye fight."

Would Yahweh thus serve the kings of Canaan, who were defending their country against invaders, and allow modern kings to go unpunished, who are the sons of the murderers of myriads of men and women of whom the world was not worthy? Is it likely that He would bring the blood, the righteous blood of 4,000 years, the blood of Abel and all the prophets, upon the generation of Judah contemporary with the destruction of Jerusalem, and not visit upon all its houses the blood of His saints shed in the countries of Europe for the last 1,200 years? The supposition cannot be admitted for a moment.

The rulers of the world must be dethroned and executed for their crimes. Their possessions must be wrested from them; for their houses have acquired them by robbery and blood.

But while the press discerns fearful disaster in the future, it has no idea of the Old Man of the earth being despoiled of all his riches, honors, profits, and powers, and a transfer being made of them to the New Man of the Spirit. The probability is that, though the Bible has circulated in England for hundreds of years, the press never heard of such a man. It is well acquainted with the Old Man; but with the New Man and his rights of inheritance and glorious destiny it is totally unacquainted.

Although the Scriptures speak so explicitly upon the subject, the Press would smile with contemptuous incredulity were it told that the banks and all the specie they contain, they courts of law, the Church temples, palaces and thrones of the world, were all to be seized and appropriated to their own use by certain men and women who have believed the glad tidings of the Kingdom, been baptized, and patiently continued in welldoing since they began to do well in being immersed (Matt. 28:19; Mark 16:15-16; Acts 8:12; 1 Cor. 1:21).

This is a grand and controlling principle of the political economy, or the disposition of times, according to the policy of Yahweh.

It is a principle, however, not recognized in the politics of the Gentiles. Gentile politics assign heaven to the dead and earth to the living -- and to these living only on condition that they will be true and faithful to the lust of the flesh, and lust of the eye, and the pride of life.

If they will not swear allegiance to these, which are the composite elements of the Old Man of the Flesh, they are not allowed to partake of national honor or rewards, not to take a seat in the ecclesiastical high places of the earth. You must be loyal to the Old man of the Flesh, or you cannot "cut a figure" in the world; for he delighteth to honor none who do not bow and scrape to him.

But it is probable that the Press would exclaim against such an appropriation of banks, specie, thrones, honors, pulpits, etc., as mere "robbery" and "spoil." Such conduct, it would protest, ought to meet with universal execration and severe punishment, and, were its publication then permitted, it would doubtless be filled with very eloquent and logical articles against such wholesale violation of the eighth and tenth commandments!

But, the friends of the Old Man of the Earth and Sea should remember a saying of their own, which they often quote in justification of all their appropriations: "To the victors," say they, "belong the spoil."

Now, if the New Man of the Heavens, as defined aforesaid, should measure swords with the Old Man of the Earth, and the latter should be so cut up that he had to cry for quarter, would not the New Man, upon the Old Man's principle, be entitled to the spoils?

The Old Man has present possession of the earth and all its riches, and intends to keep them forever.

And so he may, if he can. But then he must fight for them; for He that made the earth will not allow him to retain them on any other terms. The Old Man became possessd of them in the beginning only on condition of allegiance of the Lord of the Manor. This condition he has violated. And yet he claims not only the right of tenure, but refuses ejectment and affirms that he is himself the lord in perpetual right of possession.

This is the real issue between Heaven and the Old Man. He has long since been served with a notice of ejectment, but he ignores it and defies. Tribulation and war are therefore decreed against him, which can only terminate in his reduction to the position of a serf upon the manor he has so flagrantly misruled.

But the New Man of the heavens will spoil the Old Rebel, and appropriate his assets upon a higher principle than that of conquest.

"Whatsoever," said Yahweh, "is under the whole heaven is Mine" (Job 41:11). He is therefore styled by Melchizedek "Possessor of the heaven and earth" (Gen. 14:19). In another place it is written (Ex. 9:29) -- "The earth is Yahweh's." And (Psa. 24:1) -- "The earth is Yahweh's and the fulness thereof; the world, even those who dwell in it." Yahweh of Hosts saith -- "The gold and the silver are Mine" (Hag. 2:8).

These testimonies are sufficient to prove that Yahweh still claims the earth and the world of mankind upon it, and all they call theirs is His. It is a claim he has never surrendered, and although the Old Man has possessed it since the Flood, and even taken forcible possession of that portion of it which Yahweh declared to Israel, saying, "The Land is Mine" (Lev. 25:23) -- still the claim is not extinct, it is only in abeyance, for there is no statute of limitation to bar it against the Lord.

The earth being Yahweh's, its eternal possession can only be acquired by a deed from Him. It is clear that the Old Man of the Earth has not obtained that deed, because he is corruptible and mortal, and a mortal man cannot acquire more than a tenant-for-life possession. "Corruption cannot inherit incorruption."

A New Man must therefore appear in court with ability to show, first, that he is incorruptible and deathless, and, secondly, that Yahweh, the Possesser of heaven and earth, hath given the earth and world to him.

This Man hath appeared in the Court of Israel and his name is Jesus. He hath put in his claim and proved by witnesses and by Yahweh that he is His Son by resurrection from among the dead and alive for evermore. And, having proved this, he hath also proved that Yahweh's promises to His Son are of right his.

Now, concerning His Son, Yahweh has said in the second Psalm -- "Thou are My Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of Me and I will give the nations for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession."

Nothing can be plainer than this. Yahweh has promised the earth to His Son, and that Son he hath acknowledged to be Jesus. Then Jesus, the New Man of the Spirit, is the rightful owner of the earth and the world.

Has he got it? Has he EVER had it? No, never!

What is the hindrance? The Old Man of the earth has possession of it and will not surrender it until a stronger than he appears to turn him out. This necessitates a conflict of the deadliest character -- a time of tribulation unsurpassed.

The earth and world and all their fulness being assigned to Jesus by a Divine statute, it is competent for him, Jesus, to say who, if any, shall share with him in possession.

Will he enter into treaty with the Old Man and leave him in possession of Europe, Asia, Africa and America, if he will acknowledge him King of the Jews in Zion? Or will he demand the unconditional surrender of the whole?

Nothing less than this will be accepted. The present rulers will not be tolerated. They are a bolt upon the face of things, obstacles in the way of righteousness and truth. Jesus is Heir of all things and he has announced his willingness to share his inheritance with all who, like himself, "fulfill the righteousness of God."

This excludes the Old Man totally, but opens the door to all that will forsake him and turn to God. They are invited to "Put off the Old Man, with his deeds, and to put on the New Man."

When they have "put on" the New Man, they are a constitutional part of him, and consequently "joint heirs with Christ" of the earth and world, and of all the fulness thereof. To such Jesus says -- "I will give you power over the nations, and you shall rule them with a rod of iron; sitting with me on my Throne, as kings and priests, reigning on the earth" (Rev. 2:26; 3:21).

When they possess this power over the nations, all that the nations and their present rulers call theirs will then be at the disposal of these joint inheritors. Paul, addressing this class at Corinth, said to them -- "The world is yours, all things are yours, all things are for your sakes."

It is clear, then, that the gold and the silver, and the power and the riches extant will all be relinquished to them -- "He will fill the poor with good things, and the rich He will send empty away."

Assuredly, the coming panic will be tremendous -- fear and disaster on every side. Be warned, then, and trim your lamp for the time is short and the terror hasteth