as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood. And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as the fig tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of mighty wind. And the heavens departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places." (Rev. vi. 12, 13, 14.) And in describing the final casting out of the beast and the false prophet, and the descent of the holy city, the New Jerusalem, it is said: "And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heavens fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and first earth had passed away; and there was no more sea." (Rev. xx. 11, and xxi. 1) Now it will scarcely be denied by any one who intends to reason fairly,—and with those who do not, it is in vain to attempt to reason,—it will scarcely be denied or questioned, that the same prophetic figures, whether in the Old or in the New Testament, ought to be interpreted in the same manner. I have already endeavored to show that similar prophecies in the Old Testament cannot be understood in a literal sense, for in that sense they were not fulfilled; and have given a hasty glance at their internal, spiritual meaning. If the principles advocated above are true, the passages quoted from the New Testament must have a similar application to the final consummation of the first Christian church. They afford nothing on which to rest even a probability that the earth, or any portion of the material universe, will ever be destroyed.
To repeat the above argument in a few words: The word of the Lord, if taken in a literal sense, distinctly taught that the earth and other portions of the material universe would be destroyed contemporaneously with an event which took place near two thousand years since. But these works of the Creator have continued to exist, and thus have demonstrated that those prophecies which seemed to foretell
