We can readily suppose, however, that even when all are perfect and in God's image, order will still be maintained; for as "order is heaven's first law," so it should also be earth's first law. And this will imply righteous principalities and powers. There, will be the first thoroughly successful Republic. Present attempts to recognize every man as a king, and the equal of every other man, and the chosen representative or President a servant of fellow kings, rather than a lord, have all proven failures in varying degrees; because men are not equals mentally, physically and morally, nor in financial and other respects; and because none are really fit to be sovereigns, but on account of weaknesses all now need to be under laws and restraints.

But when that which is perfect shall have been attained for mankind, by the Mediatorial Kingdom, they will be all kings as was Adam before he sinned. And to these kings, unitedly, will be delivered the post-Millennial Kingdom of God; and all shall reign harmoniously under the law of Love, and their President will serve and represent them. O Lord, we pray, Thy Kingdom Come! for thy present saints' sake and for the world's sake.

CHAPTER XIV.

JEHOVAH'S FOOTSTOOL MADE GLORIOUS.

GODS FOOTSTOOL Defiled AND ABANDONED BECAUSE OF SIN.-THE PROMISED REVIVAL OF ITS GLORY.-THE PURCHASED Possession TO BE RESTORED.-ITS Brightest Jewel.-The Reestablishment oF JEHOVAH'S FEET "ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES."-THE RESULTANT BLESSINGS.-THE FOOTSTOOL FINALLY GLORIOUS INdeed.

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Thus saith Jehovah, Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool." "And I will make the place [footstool] of my feet glorious." "And his [Jehovah's] feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives."-Isa. 60:13; 66:1; Zech. 14:4; Matt. 5:35; Acts 7:49.

OD'S footstool has been anything but glorious for the

past six thousand years: sin, pain, crying, mental and physical suffering and death have made it one vast charnel house in which now, conservatively estimated, at least fifty thousand millions of humanity wait for the time to come when the curse of divine justice shall be lifted; and the light of divine favor, shining in the face of Jesus Christ our Lord, shall rise as the Sun of righteousness,"Chase away sin's dismal shadows,

Light the gloom with healing ray."

To this end God has made abundant provision. The ransom for Adam, and for all who suffered loss through him as his children, bought the whole world, and secured for each member of our race an opportunity for a trial for everlasting life under favorable conditions; but it did more, it

purchased back Adam's Paradise home (lost by his transgression), and his dominion as earth's king, representative of God, his Creator and Father.

Hence we read, "And thou, O Tower of the flock [Christ], the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion." (Micah 4:8.) The Apostle Paul also, speaks of the "redemption of the purchased possession." (Eph. 1:14.) Our Lord in one of his parables referred to this also, showing that he purchased not only mankind, the treasure, but also the field, the world, the earth from under the curse: and that all who join with him, as members of the Kingdom class, share in that purchase of the field and the treasure.-Matt. 13:44.

The entire work of the Millennium will consist in reordering and making glorious God's footstool. Paradise, when lost through sin, was but a "garden" in a corner of the earth; but inasmuch as the race of Adam has multiplied to fill the earth, in accordance with the divine intention (Gen. 1:28), and inasmuch as they all have been redeemed, it will be necessary to provide a Paradise sufficiently large to accommodate all: and this will imply that the entire earth shall become as the Garden of Eden for fruitfulness and beauty and perfection. And all this is promised as the grand future consummation of the divine plan.-Acts 3: 20, 21; Rev. 2:7; 2 Cor. 12:4.

But the richest jewel of the Lord's glorified footstool in the close of the Millennium will be mankind, in whose perfection, liberty, and likeness to God, in moral and intellectual graces, will be reflected the very image of Divinity. And most gloriously will the perfect man reflect honor upon his Maker and his wondrous plan for his creation, redemption and restitution. And with that wonderful plan will always be intimately identified first the Lord Jesus, Jehovah's "Word," and second the Bride, the Lamb's

wife and joint-heir in disbursing the blessings secured by the ransom.

This beautifying and glorifying of the Lord's "footstool" will not be completed until our Lord Jesus, as the Father's honored agent, "shall have put down all [conflicting] rule, and all authority and power. For he must reign until he hath put all enemies under his feet, before he delivers up the Kingdom at the close of the Millennium."-1 Cor. 15:24-28.

The period of the reign of Sin and Death is represented as the time when God "remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger" (Lam. 2:1); but following the beginning of the Millennium, the people are prophetically called upon to "Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his footstool, for he is worthy." (Psa. 99:5.) And this thought, that the establishment of the New Jerusalem, the Church of God glorified, as the new government in the earth, will mean the beginning of the restoration of divine favor to Jehovah's footstool, is clearly set forth through the Prophet Zechariah (14:4, 5).

JEHOVAH'S FEET ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES.

This prophecy is generally misunderstood, and applied to the feet of our Lord Jesus, at his second advent: and indeed, those who thus err generally go farther and assert that it will be the feet of flesh, pierced with the nails of Calvary ;-not realizing that our Lord gave his human nature, complete and forever, as our ransom; and that he was raised from the dead, by the Father's power, a glorious spirit-being-"the express image of the Father's person."*

But a glance at the preceding verse (3) shows that the Prophet's reference is to the return of Jehovah's feet; for the statement (referring to the trouble by which the King*See VOL. II., Chap. 5.

dom will be established) is: "Then shall Jehovah go forth and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle [in olden times for Israel]. And his feet will stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be divided in its center, from east to west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove northward and half southward."

As soon as any recognize the fact that the feet mentioned are Jehovah's feet, they will not dispute that this language is symbolic, and refers to the Lord's reestablishment of his dominion in the earth, which has long been comparatively abandoned to the "god of this world" Satan ;-except as the Lord was represented first by the typical Tabernacle, secondly by the Temple at Jerusalem, and lastly by the present tabernacle condition of the Church of Christ, during this Gospel age. Surely, no one will err and get the thought that Jehovah literally rests his feet upon this earth as a "footstool."

And if the placing and resting of Jehovah's "feet" is symbolic, and signifies the return of divine favor and dominion to earth, so, we may be sure, other features connected in the same prophecy are symbolic: the Mount of Olives, its peculiar division, its valley, the flight of the people, the waters of life from Jerusalem (Compare verse 8 with Ezek. 47:1-9), etc., are all symbolic statements,— pictures of grand spiritual truths.

The olive is a symbol full of meaning: in olden times it was the source of artificial light, its oil being generally used for this purpose. (Exod. 27:20.) Indeed, in the Hebrew the olive tree was called shemen or oil tree. Olive oil was also used as the basis of many of the precious ointments of olden time-such as that used in anointing the priests and kings, typifying the holy spirit upon the antitypical "royal