e Holy City

The judgment work in heaven having been accomplished, the hour has come
for the execution of the judgment upon sin and sinners. The holy city
comes down out of heaven. The prophet saw its descent in vision:

"I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of
heaven." Rev. 21:2.

The Loosing of Satan

"When the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his
prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations." Rev. 20:7, 8.

With all the wicked destroyed by the glory of Christ's second coming,
Satan had been effectually bound; but now, as the city descends, the
voice of Christ calls forth the wicked dead, and Satan is thus loosed,
and assumes control again of those who have chosen him as their master.

It is the time of which the Scripture speaks: "The rest of the dead
lived not again until the thousand years were finished." Verse 5. The
prophet saw the hosts of the lost called forth. "The sea gave up the
dead which were in it; and death and hell [the "grave," margin]
delivered up the dead which were in them." Verse 13.

Thus Satan's subjects come forth to the last judgment. The resurrection
of the wicked of all the ages is the loosing of Satan. Here again is his
kingdom, and again he plies his deceptions and takes up anew his fight
against God. How very natural that Satan should persuade the wicked that
he has raised them to life, that his word in the beginning was true, "Ye
shall not surely die"! If they are immortal, why may they not yet
prevail against God? Satan rallies his angels and the hosts of the
wicked, in numbers "as the sand of the sea," to make an attack upon the
city of God.

"How vast the concourse! not in number more
The waves that break on the resounding shore,
The leaves that tremble in the shady grove,
The lamps that gild the spangled vaults above;
Those overwhelming armies, whose command
Said to one empire, Fall; another, Stand;
Whose rear lay wrap't in night, while breaking dawn
Rous'd the broad front, and called the battle on;
Great Xerxes' world in arms, proud Cannae's field,
Where Carthage taught victorious Rome to yield,
Immortal Blenheim, fam'd Ramillia's host;--
They all are here, and here they all are lost;
Their millions swell, to be discerned in vain,
Lost as a billow in th' unbounded main."

--_Edward Young's "Last Day."_

"They went up on the breadth of the earth, and com