In the fourteenth verse the Savior says: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” This preaching of the gospel of the kingdom is to be after the apostasy, and just prior to the end of the world. Throughout sectism theology and tradition have been substituted for the gospel, but in the evening time John beholds an angel flying in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth. This is the same as the preaching of the gospel in the end of the world to which the Savior refers. He has now taken the disciples once down through the whole of the Christian dispensation to the end of the world.
In the fifteenth verse he begins with them again at the desolation spoken of by Daniel, which is the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70 A.D. From the sixteenth to the twenty-second verse inclusive, [pg 487] he instructs them concerning this abomination. From the twenty-third to the twenty-sixth inclusive he again speaks of the apostasy. False Christs and false prophets shall arise. In the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth verses he speaks of the end of the world. He has now taken them through the Christian era again down to the time of the end. In the twenty-ninth verse he leads them back again to the destruction of Jerusalem. “Immediately after the tribulation of those days [by this he refers to the destruction of Jerusalem] shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven.” This is the obscuring of Christ and the church by the beast power in the noontime.
In the thirty-first verse he says, “And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” These are the angels that are shouting, “Come out of her, my people.” They are gathering out of God's kingdom all things that do offend and them that do iniquity. This is the work of God in the time of the end. “Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon.” Zech. 2:7. “Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.” Jer. 16:16.
“Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the Lord. Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evils of your doings, saith the Lord. And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their fold; and they shall be fruitful and increase.” Jer. 23:1-3.
In the evening of time God will gather the scattered remnant of his people, but woe be to the pastors that scattered them. Let the proud lords of sectism repent of their evil doings ere God visits his woe upon them.
“For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day [sectism]. And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall [pg 489] they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel. I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God. I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment.” Ezek. 34:11-16.
God is gathering out his own into the beautiful light of Zion. We have now reached the time when the above promise is being fulfilled by the delivering hand of God. Amid the ruins of Babel confusion the Lord has a remnant which he is gathering home to their goodly fold, in the top of the mountains of Israel.
“Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.” Isa. 1:9. “Yet, behold, therein shall be left a remnant that shall be brought forth.” Ezek. 14:22.
"Have you heard the voice from heaven,
Calling in a solemn tone,