THE APOCALYPSE UNVEILED. —The Day of Judgment, The Resurrection, and the Millennial, presented in a New Light. —The Repossession of Palestine by the Jews and their Conversion to Christ as their Messiah. In two volumes 12mo. Pp. 725. —ANONYMOUS. —Publisher, E. French, 12 Bible House, N.Y., 1853. Price $2.50.

Such is the title of a work reprinted in this city from an English copy. Its mechanical execution is respectable, the paper being white, clear, and of good body, and the type new or nearly so. The binding is cloth-boards, and lettered on the back "Apocalypse Unveiled;" which without dispute is an exceedingly attractive title to all interested in the interpretation of that extraordinary and hitherto uninterpreted book. The two volumes contains 725 pages of long primer type, with leads between the lines; which, if all were placed together in a body, would leave about one fourth of each page a blank. That the reader may have some idea of the quantity of print contained in the two volumes, I would say that, set up after the form of Elpis Israel, the 725 pages would make a book of the size of that work. If then our readers desire to purchase two dollars and fifty cents’ worth of printed paper with the publisher’s fifty or seventy-five percent added to the original mechanical or "getting-up" cost, let him procure the "Apocalypse Unveiled." No book can suit such a buyer of publishers’ wares better. Plenty of paper, plenty of print, and respectable binding—two nice duodecimo volumes for his table—what more can he want?

But I have been requested by some, who judge of the value of books, not by their length, breadth, and thickness, but by the thoughts, ideas, arguments, valuable information they may contain, to let them know through the Herald what I think of the "Apocalypse Unveiled," concerning which a very "taking" notice had appeared in the National Intelligencer before its publication. They desire this, that they may not "throw away" two dollars and fifty cents for what might turn out to be a mere bookseller’s speculation. To gratify these friends, I have procured the loan (fortunately only the loan) of the "Apocalypse Unveiled" from a worthy brother whose property it is. "Keep it," said he, "as long as you please;" a lease which impressed me with the idea that the author in drawing aside the veil had exposed nothing very admirable to view, at least to him; or he would have desired it for frequent contemplation at much shorter intervals than, if left to my own convenience, I might have pleased to afford him.

Some readers may not know what the Apocalypse is, not finding any such title in the English version of the Bible, nor being acquainted with Greek. For their information, then, it may be remarked, that apocalypsis is the first word of the Greek copy of the book styled "The Revelation of St. John," and signifies a revelation. Hence, many have adopted the Greek word as the title of the twenty-two chapters into which John’s book is divided, to distinguish it from other parts of Scripture which are revelations also. The English title does not express the truth. The Apocalypse is not John’s Revelation; but "A Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him TO SHOW UNTO HIS SERVANTS things which must shortly come to pass." This is the title given to the book by John, to whom Jesus sent and signified it through his messenger.

Revelation is the unveiling of hidden things. "The Apocalypse Unveiled," then, is a very objectionable title, signifying "The Unveiling Unveiled." The unveiling was performed by God when he gave the revelation to Jesus Christ. God unveiled the future to him; and He unveiled the future to his servants by showing what had been made manifest to him. How is it, then, that this book is not understood? It is the Future Unveiled; yet it baffles all the learned, all "the divines of Christendom," and all their disciples who rush into print upon the subject, to form even a rational conjecture upon coming events! The enigma is not difficult to solve; nay, the question is answered in John’s title, which informs us, that the Apocalypse is a revelation to Christ’s servants, to show them the future. It is not an unveiling of the future to those who are not his servants—to the wise, the prudent, the scribes, the princes, the disputers of this world—1 Corinthians 1: 20—who have been almost exclusively the baffled expositors of apocalyptic truth. These are not Christ’s servants, not having the seal of God in their foreheads—Revelation 7: 3. They neither understand, believe, nor have obeyed, the gospel of the kingdom; and therefore their foreheads are unstamped with the seal of God. How can men ignorant of the gospel of the kingdom expound a revelation which unfolds the formation of a situation of human affairs, the predicted resolution of which is the reestablishment of the Twelve Tribes of Israel in the Holy Land under the government of "THE KINGS OF THE EAST," or Christ and the Saints, with dominion over all nations to earth’s utmost bounds? They who do not understand and believe this, and the manner in which the setting up of this theocracy is to be effected, and who cannot scripturally define "the Saints," are utterly incapable of giving a scriptural, rational, demonstrative, or intelligible explanation of The Apocalypse. The Hengstenbergs, the Tregelleses, the Elliotts, the Cummingses, the Bickersteths, the Fabers, the Cunninghames, the Bp. Newtons, the Keiths, the lords, and all the commons, who have written upon it, too numerous to mention, can no more interpret the vision, than could all the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, and the soothsayers, of Nebuchadnezzar’s court, his dream of the latter-day catastrophe of the Kingdom of Babylon. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him"—with them "who keep his commandments, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ"—Revelation 12: 17; 14: 12.

This is the reason of such universal failure. All these writers occupy theological stand-points from which the revealed future cannot be seen. How can a man possibly expound correctly the seventeenth and nineteenth chapters, whose theology inculcates the introduction of the Millennium by the influence of "the benevolent institutions of the day" upon the governments and peoples? Or a peace-society man who dreams of war ceasing from the earth before Christ comes? Or one who believes in the triumph of republicanism over monarchy? Or how could divines of the Church of England, or of Scotland, or of their sectarian offshoots, expound the saying concerning God’s servants, "These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins"—Revelation 14: 4; seeing that they are all defiled by these "Women," being ministers of the "Harlots," which recognise "Babylon the Great" as the "Holy Mother Church," though corrupt in many things? The author of "The Apocalypse Unveiled" truly remarks, "It is strange that Protestant Divines should claim descent from this woman. If any such connection does exist, it would be more discreet to conceal it than to boast of it."

But, what shall we say of this same "Apocalypse Unveiled?" Divines say that the Apocalypse is a dark book. If then you put a veil over a dark book, what do you accomplish? You make it darker! Suppose then you afterwards unveiled it, what is the result? You make darkness visible! That is very true. If therefore I were asked to amplify the title, I would write it, "The Apocalypse Unveiled, or Darkness made Visible;" and instead of saying, "Presented in a New Light," I would render it, "With Former Shadows intensely Deepened." I never took a book into my hand upon the subject it treats of, whose intrinsic value is of so little worth. I would not give it shelf-room. The authorship is a disgrace to any man outside a lunatic asylum. The writer has withheld his name, which is good policy: for one would hardly think it possible for another work on prophecy with his name affixed to find an intelligent purchaser for a single copy. This may be thought severe censure; it may be, but it is just, and in my judgment richly deserved. It is such trashy books as these that have darkened, and brought into disrepute, one of the most interesting and important portions of the Scriptures. An exposition of the Apocalypse is still a desideratum, which can only be fulfilled by one unspoiled by scholastic theology, independent of authority, intelligent in the political constitution of the Gentiles, and who understands the gospel of the kingdom, and has obeyed it.

A citation or so from "The Apocalypse Unveiled," I doubt not, will satisfy the reader that we have extenuated in the case. "I believe," says he, "that heathen Rome has nothing at all to do with the book after it leaves the seven churches." "The Four Beasts (with six wings, chapter 4: 6-8) are intended to represent the four grand divisions of the earth!!" "The Lion is the appropriate symbol of Africa: the Ox is the emblem of Asia: the beast with a man’s face is obviously intended to represent Europe: the flying eagle is America!" "The Sun becoming black as sackcloth of hair, (chapter 6: 12,)—This is the first direct reference to England yet met with in the Apocalypse!" The blackening the Sun was the execution of Charles I, "the head of the nation and head of the Church." "France is represented under the metaphor of the moon!" The Four Angels holding the four winds of the earth are the Powers that formed the Holy Alliance of 1815! The sealed out of the Twelve Tribes are "the dissenting and varying forms of Christian denominations!" "The duration of the silence in heaven for half an hour is of no consequence!" An easy way of getting rid of the difficulty of explaining it! The angel of chapter 10 is "the present age of steam-power and the magnetic telegraph!" The woman clothed with the sun and a crown of twelve stars upon her head, is the union of the English Church and State, "guided and governed by the light and teachings of the twelve apostles!" This is a climax of absurdity with which we may well dismiss the "Apocalypse Unveiled" to the waste-paper basket for candle-lighters, and so forth.

EDITOR.

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A DEBATE ON THE STATE OF THE DEAD between Rev. Thomas P. Connelly, A.B., an Evangelist of the Christian Church, and Nathaniel Field, M.D., Pastor of the Church of God, meeting at the Christian Tabernacle in the city of Jeffersonville, Indiana. Held at Old Union Meeting-house, in the vicinity of Indianapolis, in the summer of 1852. Reported by J.G. Gordon, Esq., Attorney at Law, and revised by the Parties. Published by Dr. Field at Jeffersonville, Indiana. 12mo. pp. 308. Price $1 00, postage included.

The above is the title of a work recently forwarded to me by my friend Dr. Field. On reading it, it may occur to the reader to inquire, What ground of debate can possibly exist between "An Evangelist of the Christian Church" and a "Pastor of the Church of God?" To this question it may be replied, that if the ecclesiastical words and phrases of this century were representative of the spiritual ideas of the apostolic age, there could be no ground of debate. But there is nothing more distinct than Bible things and modern phrases. The language and ideas of Scripture are inseparable as sign and thing signified. Not so, however, with the dialect of the schools and systems of this expiring age—it expresses one thing, but really means another. Thomas P. Connelly, the Reverend Bachelor of Arts, styles himself "an Evangelist of the Christian Church." In Paul’s day, an evangelist (euaggelistes, from eu, good, and euaggelizo, to deliver a message) was one who announced glad tidings, or good news, and had received a spiritual gift, or gifts, by the laying on of the hands of the eldership, by which the gospel he announced was confirmed. Mr. Connelly has the official name of such an one, but without qualification. But he claims to be an evangelist of "The Christian Church;" not of a Christian church, but of the simon-pure community! Dr. Field, I should think, will hardly admit this claim; because, as their churches are in opposition, the recognition of Mr. Connelly’s church as the true one, would be to surrender the claim of his to be "the Church of God." The Christian Church and the Church of God are scripturally identical; but here we have them in our day rival and antagonistic.

But, what is this Christian Church? From things exhibited in the debate we are able to strip it of all phraseological disguise. It is nothing more nor less than the Campbellite Brotherhood; so that Mr. Connolly is not "an evangelist of the Christian Church;" but, one who is commissioned by the Campbellite community to announce to the people as gospel, the opinions inculcated by the Professor of Sacred History at Bethany College. Among these opinions is the purely carnal notion, (so carnal that the old pagans, who were utterly ignorant of the things of the Spirit of God, entertained it,) that when man dies, he is not only conscious, but beatifically glorious beyond the skies! This is the bright side of the conceit; the dark one is, that if he have been wicked before "shuffling off his mortal coil," he descends into the bottomless pit burning with fire and brimstone, where he remains as fuel for the burning to infinity.

The preaching such foolishness as this destroys entirely Mr. Connelly’s claim to be regarded as a scriptural evangelist. Every student of the word, whose brain is not addled by pulpitology, knows very well that Paul, Timothy, and Titus, never preached any thing like it. They announced life and incorruptibility in the kingdom of God to all who believed the glad tidings concerning that royalty, and became obedient to the Law of Faith in word and deed. They proclaimed the attainment of this on rising from the dead; and hence their own anxiety to share in the resurrection. They taught immortality of body; that is, life endlessly manifested through incorruptible body: so that no body, no immortality, was the idea that stultified all the notions of the Greeks.

In the debate under notice, Dr. Field took up the scriptural position, which is invulnerable by the pointless shafts of orthodoxy and spiritrappology. To enlighten the public mind on the state of the dead as revealed in Scripture is a useful work; and very much needed at the present time, "when," as he says, "it is so much excited by the delusions and vagaries of modern spiritualism." I wish success to every effort calculated to rationalise the people on religious topics; I hope, therefore, that the Doctor’s work will have free course to that end. All wishing to purchase can send him an order as above, prepaid, and enclosing the price, and in a few days he will enable them to judge of the endeavour for themselves.

EDITOR.

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A SUPPLEMENT TO THE COMING STRUGGLE AMONG THE NATIONS OF THE EARTH, containing Replies to some Objections brought against the Pamphlet; with a Development of the Theory of the Two Witnesses and the 1260 years; Also, additional reasons for asserting that Britain cannot be one of the Ten Horns. BY THE AUTHOR OF THE COMING STRUGGLE. London, Tenth Thousand. 1853.

A kind friend in Nottinghamshire has forwarded me a copy of the above. It contains nothing new to those who possess copies of Elpis Israel. What Mr. Pae says about the Two Witnesses is a faithful transcription from its pages; save that he mistakenly attributes their defeat in 1572-1685 to "the Dragon and the Beast," which I do not. It was the Beast "that ascendeth out of the Bottomless Pit that makes war against them, and overcomes them, and kills them;" not the Dragon, which is a distinct power, and not concerned in that Book.

My calculation of their death-periods he parades with lines of italic, without the slightest hint of his having no more to do with it into his manuscript.

My calculation also of Ezekiel’s 430 years he treats in the same manner. Not satisfied with this, he republishes a page of my chronology as it stands in the English edition of Elpis Israel, without discovering that there is a typographical error in regard to the reign of Alexander the Great, which ought to be eight years instead of seven; and the age of Jesus at his crucifixion 35¼ instead of 36¼, as he has copied it.

Under the head of Britain he runs wild. Upon this topic he has some original matter, which makes him very vulnerable. But fortunately for him, his contemporaries there are as much in the dark as he. I have stated, (and I believe I am the only one that has done so with proof,) that Britain is not one of the Ten Toes of the Image, or Ten Horns of the Beast. I have many reasons for this. Mr. Pae has adopted the idea, and given it as his own on page 19; but not understanding it aright, he has jumped to the conclusion that England is not to be "involved in the approaching storm," but will have to "battle for virtue, for morality, for knowledge, for religion, and for Christ; and the struggle is against vice, ignorance, impiety, and the Devil." This is mere fal-lal. Though the British Power is not an element of Gog’s or Nebuchadnezzar’s Image, she is a Gentile Power to be humbled by the Stone. Her Church is a Harlot; and her whole ecclesiastical system mere sham-Christianity. Mammon is her god, and her priests his faithful votaries. There will no doubt be a difference in the degree of her punishment as compared with the papal nations; but that she will escape the wrath of God is but the day-dream of speculative patriotism, which is at best but a very fleshly affair.

On page 26, Mr. Pae has half a page of my words, which he attributes to "an American writer on Popery!" This is certainly not particularly descriptive of myself, as I can hardly be styled a writer on Popery more than on any other special form of abomination. His "Appendix No. 1" is also the dates given in Elpis Israel, thrown into a tabular form without acknowledgment.

In the circulation of the truth I rejoice, though I may not, as in the present instance, be benefited a cent. I do not, however, like to see a man work up ideas not his own, and which, if left to himself, he never would have thought of, and publish them to the world as if he were their author. In his "Coming Struggle" he makes as slight an acknowledgment of the source they are derived from as possible. I regret this, because, had he acted with literary candor and generosity, several editions of Elpis Israel might have been put in circulation in Britain, that would have enabled the public to understand the gospel of the Kingdom, as well as the coming struggle of the Powers; which his own limited means are incapable of doing. The pamphlet has set the people to thinking and inquiring for more information; which, from another pamphlet to be noticed hereafter, I perceive he is unable to afford when he loses sight of Elpis Israel. He has advertised two works of a clergyman upon Daniel and the Revelation, on his pamphlet cover—works from which he has borrowed only eight lines; while of the existence of the Herald and Elpis Israel, from the latter of which he has plagiarised every thing that has given interest to his pamphlets, he has left his readers and the public in absolute and total ignorance! It is true, that orders for Elpis Israel could not have been supplied, (there being now only twelve copies in Britain unsold;) still it would have given the works notoriety, and have created a demand I should have endeavoured to supply by reprinting the work. Mr. Pae has been over here, and republished; and caused some of the pamphlets to be exposed for sale in Mott Haven, where I learned his name; yet my face he has never seen! These facts do not exalt my views of his proceeding!

EDITOR.

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THE COMING REST FOR THE NATIONS OF THE EARTH; or the Millennium described in accordance with Scripture Prophecy. BY THE AUTHOR OF THE COMING STRUGGLE. London. Seventh Thousand. 1853.

This is a general view of the subject, faintly daguerreotyped, as it were, in pamphlet form, from the first and second parts of Elpis Israel, as The Coming Struggle was from the third. The design of the pamphleteer seems to have been to secure readers to the widest extent, which was certainly desirable; he therefore trims his sails and braces his yards so as not to run afoul of the majority, who believe in a Millennium of spiritual influence, in which Christ and the Saints (wherever they may be) are not to be found upon the earth.

It can be seen, however, that Mr. Pae does not believe in this; for he states clearly the position we occupy, even to an extent beyond what he avows as his own conviction, and shows its scripturality and reasonableness; while he speaks hypothetically, so as not to be committed to premillennialism, which is not popular. He says, "In the public discussion of this subject, the advocates of the postmillennial theory reject the English translation of the Scriptures. Taken as it stands in our language, there can be no doubt that the Bible teaches the doctrine of a premillennial advent." He then shows, that the practical conclusion of the postmillennial argument is, that "the English Bible is not to be trusted." Yet he adds, "We do not intend by these remarks to intimate our dissent from the postmillennial theory, but merely to press upon the notice of the Church the existing difference, which all admit, between that theory and the English Bible." "While we neither assert nor deny a personal advent, we consider that the government or constitution of the Coming Rest will be essentially Messianic. It will be emphatically Christ’s kingdom; and if not personally or visibly present, he will send forth a personation of his Spirit so vividly, that a personal or bodily presence could not give any stronger evidence of his assumption of universal regal authority on earth." Such is the non-committal position he assumes. He consequently says nothing about the First Resurrection, and the destruction of the Powers that be by Christ and the Saints; but confines his notice of resurrection to that at the end of a thousand years. On reading what he says, my conviction is, that he believes more than he ventures to confess. But such an exhibition of truth, while it saves a man’s popularity, will do little to advance the truth.

Sin and Satan are evidently stumbling-blocks in his way. Not understanding the Scripture concerning these, or not willing to come out with what he may see, he is sadly bothered with the binding of the Devil. He cannot see how the Devil can be bound, and yet sin exist for a thousand years after. He admits the existence of Death in the Millennium; but affirms that "no sin will be committed during this period," in the face of the saying, that "the wages of sin is death."

He imagines that only one language will be spoken in the Millennium, founded upon Zephaniah 3: 9. He forgets that Zechariah speaks of ten languages, at least, existing in the day of Judah’s glory. These two prophecies must be taken in connection, thus: "The Lord will turn to the people a pure language in that day, when ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, ‘We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’" Mr. Pae does not see that the language is a pure religious language, by which these people of many tongues will be enabled to serve the Lord "with one consent." He thinks that the pure language is "the old Saxon spoken by Bunyan, Shakespeare, and Milton!" But where this is predicted, he testifieth not.

In answering the question, When is the Millennium to begin? —he again quotes from Elpis Israel without acknowledgment. He plagiarises the Second Exodus of forty years; and the date 1906 at its termination, for its beginning; also the seven years as the duration of the "little season" at the end, as exhibited in my chronology on the last page of Elpis Israel. The success of this pamphleteer is certainly unexampled. I hope he has done much good, though his way of doing it is far from being in good literary and correct keeping.

EDITOR.

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