JAC Online

The Millenium
by General William Booth

The Millenium: Or, the ultimate triumph of Salvation Army principles, is a classic 1890 article that until now has not been available anywhere online. 

Many will want to link and study this important article.

(they spelled millennium with one ‘n’ in those days, evidently)

>> download a copy of the original story

THERE is, I imagine, a very general expectation abroad, that certain vital changes in the moral and social condition of the world are rapidly approaching, which will be of immense and enduring benefit to the race.

Humanity is crying out for this. Men are getting restless and weary in their miseries.

Dreams of socialistic blessedness are being freely propagated and eagerly embraced in all directions, and multitudes are coming to believe that by the means of Governmental laws such changes can and will be effected in the groundwork of society as will permanently regenerate mankind.

The prophetic description of the triumphs of godliness contained in the Scriptures also encourage the expectation of a world filled with peace and plenty. No one will contend that these vivid pictures of coming prosperity have as yet been realized, while many of the closest students of prophecy concur in the opinion that we are on the very eve of their fulfilment. It may be so.

The unutterable longings, and hopes and beliefs of many of God's most faithful people seem to signify the near approach of His universal kingdom. Some say that the general triumph of godliness will be ushered in by the personal reign of Christ. We Salvationists, however, expect it to be preceded by further and mightier outpourings of the Holy Ghost than any yet known, and reckon that the war will, thereby, be carried on with greater vigor, although, in substance, on the same lines as those on which the Apostles fought and died.

About these things, however, we have neither time nor disposition to argue. Enough for us to know that there is a very general concurrence of opinion that there is a good time coming; and it may be profitable to enquire in what this triumph will consist when it does come. Can we form any rational idea as to its nature?

To this we reply, that it will be distinguished by three leading characteristics. It must involve:

1. THE REIGN OF GOD:

the accepted kingship of Jehovah. I need not say that He does not reign now. Paul spoke of the world as being without God in his day; and, alas!  it cannot be denied that this is true of it today - that is, it is without the God of the Bible. True, there is a good deal of sentiment on the subject; but who can point out any part of the world of which it can be truthfully said that God is the acknowledged Lord and Master?

On the contrary, we have governments avowedly without God; politics without God; business without God; pleasures without God; society without God.  In short, we have any number of men - in the lowest depths of ignorance, or possessed of the highest culture possible - living and dying like the animals of the field, without any realization of the favor, or the rendering up of any actual service to the living God.

In the good time coming, all this will be reversed. God will be known; "all will know Him, from the least even to the greatest;"  all who know Him will acknowledge His authority; all who acknowledge Him will love and worship Him; and all who love Him will run in the way of His commandments and delight to do His will, as the angels do it in heaven.

And this will be done in the most open and avowed manner; the fear of owning their Creator will have vanished. Men will as soon be ashamed of the sun that lights them, or the atmosphere that sustains them, as of the God Who has redeemed them, and by Whose power they live. Nay, rather than blushing to publicly own their relationship to Jesus Christ, they will

CONFESS HIM ON THE HOUSETOPS,

glorying in Him, His laws, and His people everywhere, and in. every circumstance of life. Songs and prayers and worship will be mixed up with every duty and recreation - and that all the time, every day in the week being alike hallowed and sacred to His glory. God will be King, not only in theory, but in practice. He will not only reign, but govern. The will of God will be the law of earth, as it is the law of heaven.

2. THE SECOND CHARACTERISTIC OF THE GOOD TIME COMING, WILL BE THE REIGN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.

The universal rule of God will inevitably result in obedience to His laws. Where God is feared, His commandments will be kept; and the keeping of His commandments signifies the practice of righteousness through every grade of society, and in every relation of life.

The throne of righteousness will be set up in the hearts of men; the tree will be made good; the fountain will be sweetened; the man himself will be purified; and, as the result, we shall have everywhere the good fruit of holy activities, and the example of a sweet and blessed life.

Without this inward purification - this root holiness - no matter how favorable the circumstances of men, outward rightness of conduct is simply Impossible ; it could not be, even though their surroundings should be as the Garden of Eden, for; unless the springs of action are clean, the conduct which proceeds from them cannot be pure. But In those days; by the power and operation of the Holy Spirit, the purpose of Christ, which is the destruction of the works of the devil will be accomplished; men will be entirely sanctified, and the prophecy will be fulfilled which says, "Thy people shall be all righteous."

With the world, or any considerable portion of it, thus fully saved, it will not be difficult to guess the result.

Given a righteous people, and you must have a righteous government, just laws, and the equitable administration of them.

Given a righteous people and you will have all that is fair and honorable in business. Cheating will be no more. The relations between master and servant, capital and labor, will be satisfactorily arranged on the basis of mutual interest.

Given a righteous people, and you will have the faithful discharge of all the duties arising out of the family relations of mankind. Goodness, and truth, and integrity will control every action of life. In short, "righteousness shall abound as the waves of the sea."

3. THE THIRD CHARACTERISTIC OF THE MILLENIUM, WHENEVER IT COMES, WILL BE THE PREVALENCE OF LOVE.

Whenever, and wherever God's spirit dwells, there will love hold victorious sway; that is, men will love God with all the heart, and each other as themselves, and they will make this manifest in all their outward conduct.

Love, divine love, the love of God. Love which, coming from God, partakes His nature, and though differing, as it must, immeasurably in degree, is substantially the same in character, as that vast ocean which ebbs and flows in His infinite heart.

Love, pure, beautiful. love, the love of heaven, white and clean, without a stain, all - pervading, and o'er - mastering, having possession of the whole being, and therefore controlling the whole life.

Self-sacrificing love similar in its essence and operation to the love of our Saviour Lord. And we all know the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, "Who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might become rich."  And this same love flows through His broken heart, into the hearts of His fully surrendered people.  Oh blessed, patient, enduring, hoping, suffering love. The love of God Himself shed abroad in the heart.

OH THINK OF THE WORLD FILLED WITH LOVE!

Love, all victorious love!  That conquers devils and drives them before it, for fiends cannot withstand love. Love that sees the misery - breeding, God - dishonoring, and soul-destroying character of sin, and which, out of pity for its poor deluded victims, ever hates and opposes it.

Love in partnership with Divine love. Compelling its possessors to seek the happiness of every other man. The parent devoted to the highest well-being of the children, and the children ever revering and striving after the welfare of the parent. The master laboring in the interest of the servant, and the servant toiling with all his heart for the master back again. The neighbor seeking the neighbor's good, and the neighbor returning the service with interest. All loving and laboring for the happiness of each other, and that the more eagerly as any may be weak, or erring, or friendless. Thus will all be living, not in selfish competition as to who can most effectually advance his own personal interests even though it be to the damage of his neighbor, but seeking how most effectually to promote the interests of the whole.

4. As THE RESULT OF THE REIGN OF GOD AND THE TRIUMPH OF THESE PRINCIPLES, HAPPINESS WILL OVERFLOW THE EARTH.

This poor world of ours is far enough away from happiness at present, and there are few of us who do not at times stand appalled in the contemplation of the sum of its miseries. If not past conception, let us look, for a moment, at the number and bulk of its agonies. Can we make a comparison. Let us suppose these miseries to be all brought together and heaped up in one gigantic pile; only think what

A BLACK, GRIM MOUNTAIN

we should have towering away to the skies, what a colossal mountain it would be, made up of all the physical anguish, mental torture, and heart - agony of the world.

Now pause and gaze upon this woeful sight. Oh, the wrongs and robberies, the slaveries and seductions, the cruelties and oppressions; the starvations and murders, discovered and undiscovered, done publicly before the gaze of men, or secretly before the eye of God, that stand out, piled up before us.  Rivers of tears and blood streams down the mountain's rugged sides; shrieks and cries, lamentations and wailing and woe ceaselessly issue forth, as from so many volcanic mouths and cry day and night to heaven for pity. Continuous storms of anger, and malice, and hatred, and revenge rage round it. The fiends of hell revel over it, as their handiwork; the thunder clouds of God's wrath o'er-hang it, foreboding the hurricane of vengeance which at any moment may sweep it away, and with it the earth whereon it stands.

But in that Millenial day of which we are treating, all this shall come to an end, God shall rend the heavens and come down, and this mountain shall flow down at His presence, and the place whereon it stands shall know it no more, and instead of its misery there shall be happiness, instead of its groans and gnashing of teeth, there shall be songs and gladness.

OH, WHEN SHALL IT ONCE BE!

The reign of God will end this misery in the most effectual manner possible, by destroying the causes of it. Let us sit down before the mountain, and see this destruction accomplished. It. will commence:

1. With the subtraction of all the misery caused by the wickedness of our immediate parentage. In those days no fathers or mothers will by inheritance, or training, or example, send their children forth on a career of evil. That prolific source of wretchedness will be wanting, the parent will cease to be partner with the devil in kidnapping the little ones; nay, fathers and mothers will become, and henceforth continue to be active partners with God Himself in training the children for purity and heaven.

2. Then you can take away from the mountain all that misery which comes directly and purely from the wrong - doing of men themselves; all the wretchedness manufactured by the crimes and vices and evil passions of which they are the authors. Lust and drunkenness, and the innumerable fiends that follow in their train, will have fled. How many struggle with want, and tears, and hunger, and disease, and finally die of a broken heart, the whole of which misery is the outcome of their own conduct. This big slice of misery will be gone, just because the sins, and crimes; and vices which produce it are gone also.

3. You can also  take away the misery which men inflict on each other by their selfishness, and greed, and hatred, and jealousies, and envyings, and revenges.  These will be gone. The publican, with his man - trap, will have vanished, and that without compensation. The brothels will be no more. The gambling den will no longer entice the unwary; the greedy, usurious money - maker will not grind the faces of the poor. War will not desolate the earth; slavery will have ceased to be. The Arab man - stealer will peacefully tend his flocks, and the defenceless Negro will cultivate his forest - clearing in peace.

4. Then you can take away the misery caused by the disciplinary measures God is compelled to employ to bring men to a sense of their own true character and a knowledge of Himself.

The afflictions, and losses, and diseases, and bereavements, and deaths with which He awakens them from their delusive dreams to the perception of the realities of existence and its responsibilities, will no longer be needed to bring the prodigals home and keep them at the post of duty. Instead of being driven and compelled to come into the feast of love, to embrace the Father and share His bounties, men will delight in Him, will bound into His presence, and glory in doing His will.

These subtractions will, I imagine, make a very perceptible difference in the magnitude of this Mountain, but the work of redemption from misery would still be far from complete if it were finished there. Happily, however, this is not the case. In the day that God gets His own, and is accepted as the real Sovereign of the souls of men, and righteousness and love everywhere prevail, there will be still further advances in the direction of the happiness of the race. Let us look at two or three of them.

1. There will be the joy which naturally springs from the abundant supply of every earthly need. With the possession of God, and a life in harmony with His wishes and the goodwill of all around, it will be impossible for there to be other than abundance. Whether of compulsion or choice, there will be, for all practical purposes,

A REAL COMMUNITY OF GIFTS.

He that hath more than he needs will, out of his abundance, gladly supply his brother's necessity; and he will do this, not only of his own free will, but in the acting out of his own loving nature.

2. There will be the joy that comes from walking in favor of God. Having that faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, which not only justifies the soul in view of its past misdeeds, but brings power to enable it to meet the Divine requirements of the present, there will be continual peace with God. How great that boon is, and how much it has to do with happiness, only those can know who either have it in possession, or have been made to feel the need of it.

3. Then there will be the pleasure that springs from the consciousness of right conduct. There is a satisfaction in good work. A man at the bench feels pleasure in turning out work that will bear the inspection of his employers, or of anyone else. Now the soul cannot but realize this gratification in being able to think, and feel, and talk, and act in such a manner as not only commands its own approval, but which it is assured is satisfactory to its heavenly Master. To look life's labor in the face again in the Eternal City, and be proud of it then, will be no little joy to the glorified saint, and for a man to be able to admire and approve his life's work as it is discharged from day to day, cannot be very much less gratifying.

4. Add on to all this the love of a loving world.  Who can describe the joy of loving and being loved? For truly we shall find heaven to be love when we reach it, as we find love to be heaven when we realize it here.

5. Then there will be the great addition to happiness which results from fellowship with God. Think of the blissful hours that Adam and Eve spent in Eden, when God walked and talked with them, at eventide, after the toil of the day. And still the secret communings of the Lord are with those that fear Him, for the dwelling place of God is still with men, and He lives with them to-day as He has said of His people, “Ye are the temples of the living God; I will dwell in you, and walk in you, and I will be your God and ye shall be My people."

Now take all these things together, and a great many more which they suggest on the same lines, and tell me, dear reader, whether you do not think that when God really reigns on this earth, when every heart has been cleansed, and every life has been sanctified and every bosom flows with the loving spirit of Jesus Christ, we shall not have a very enjoyable world - an all but universal Paradise. Blotted and imperfect it may be, with much of infirmity still existing, yet very nearly akin to heaven itself it must surely be. Though we may not have circumstances and surroundings as favorable to happiness as will be found in that blessed land, yet surely we shall have that which has infinitely more to do with happiness than circumstances and surroundings; we shall possess the character and the spirit of the God of heaven, which must constitute its chiefest and most rapturous joy.

LONDON BECOME THE NEW JERUSALEM.

Now, take this great City of London - this roaring, whirling Babylon - which sometimes we are severely tempted to count as the very place where Satan holds his seat – his headquarters on this planet. Now, take this City, and consider what a change would come over it! - what a wonderful place it would be, were God to come and reign in it after the fashion we have been describing. Methinks the angels of heaven, were they no better conversant with the prophetic utterances of the book of Revelation than we are, would at once proclaim it as "The Holy City, the New Jerusalem, come down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband," and, methinks, heaven would again be silent being vacant for a season by reason of the rush of its entire inhabitants to behold the wonderful sight it would present. Think of it! And let us also hasten to behold it.

Do they worship Him day and night in heaven? Does the love they bear Him call forth untiring service, ceaseless worship, unending song, most rapturous music? Does it compel the consecration of every good, the exertion of every energy, and the burning love of every heart, in the Jerusalem above? Then surely the same spiritual condition will call forth similar manifestations in the Jerusalem below.

First, we should have Hyde Park roofed in, with towers climbing towards the stars, as

THE WORLD'S GREAT GRAND CENTRAL TEMPLE.

Only think what this would mean. And then, what demonstrations, what processions, what mighty assemblies, what grand reviews, what crowded streets, impassable with the joyful multitudes marching to and fro.

The bells of Saint Paul's and Westminster Abbey and every other sanctuary, together with the trumpet calls from the roof of every Salvation Army barracks, would announce to the people the hours of prayer and praise. Methinks that at the summons for the 12.30 Daily Service the whole city would be prostrate, business and traffic, buying and selling, discussions and conversations, would all cease, and for a season the Five Million hearts, whether in home or factory, shop or exchange, warehouse or street, would turn to God with the voice of thanksgiving and with shouts of praise.

Are the businesses of heaven - whatever-they may be, and they can neither be few nor small - all hallowed with holy motive, and with references to the great Being Whose interests are supremely sought, and mixed up with expressions of confidence and songs of praise? Then surely with the spirit of heaven in this New Jerusalem on earth the same line of action will be followed.

Do the inhabitants of the Jerusalem above fly to do His will, and in the keeping of His commandments, do they find a great reward? Will it not be the same when this great metropolis accepts the same rule and acts on the principles that have been referred to here?

Then think of the wonderful change

THE REIGN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

would secure for this great city. The jails will be closed, having no law-breakers to occupy them. The Courts of Justice will be vacant, or only occasionally frequented by a few eccentric saints of antiquarian propensities, who will point out to each other the former uses of these costly structures, while the police will have nothing to do beyond acting as officers of order to the multitudes who will come from every part of the globe to see the glory of God in His Great Temple.

Cruelty to men and women, as also to animals will only be known as a thing of the past dark ages, when love with the masses of the people was nothing more than a mere sentiment, and very often not even that.

Poverty will have fled before the plenty which the angels of Industry and Economy will have introduced to every home, and consequently the workhouses will be empty, pauperism extinct, and slumdom with its wretched denizens will be no more.

Diseases of every kind have been all annihilated by moderation, frugality, and happiness, the lunatic asylums and the hospitals will be to let.

And upon all, and through all, and over all like a soft, warm, bright atmosphere will be a spirit of tender sympathy. In the houses, shops, factories, and exchanges; in. the parks, fields, and streets; nay, everywhere men and women and little children will greet each other, help each other, bless each other, with hearts over - flowing with this heavenly, Godlike spirit of love.

II. Not only will these conditions of which we have been speaking be characteristic of the Millenium, which we Christians some day expect to find, either in this world or some other - and, for my part, I am not over particular where I shall find the new heavens and the new earth, so that I do find them - but I want to remark; that no considerable amount of human blessedness, here or anywhere else, is conceivable without them. No one observant of the spirit of the present times, can be blind to the many attempts to prove just the contrary. Is there not a vain imagination abroad, which attempts to show that some heavenly condition of society can be brought about without the reign of God and that righteousness which comes only by the power of the Holy Ghost, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.  For instance, have we not just now any amount of castle building, "looking forwards," and "looking backwards," in which we have beautiful pictures of a perfect society, from which the foul blots of oppression, injustice, and poverty have vanished. But have not the worlds of blessedness conjured up before us, largely the same dark shadow hanging over them as the poverty - blighted one that they have banished into space - namely, 

THE ABOLITION OF GOD?

This cannot be. The Creator has constituted man with a view to a partnership, and assigned to Himself an important function in driving the human machine; and, without His active cooperation, that machine will not work comfortably, nor, as far as that goes, will it work at all for any length of time.

Just so, is it not the' same with righteousness?  Unless your machinery, with its wheels and rods and pistons and pivots, are all in correct proportions, and working in harmony with the purpose for which your machine has been originally fashioned, will have discord, and friction, and gratings, and breakages, and destruction - and what sort of work it will turn out, can readily be imagined. And will it not ever be the same in of morals? - only with just so much the worse gratings, and breakages, and failures in purpose, and consequences of evil, as the spiritual is of greater moment than the physical.

And again, when or where can you have any sort of Millenium without love? What is wanted is that men should love one another, and that will end the poverty, and injustice, and cold - shouldering of misery, which is one of the worst forms that injustice assumes among men. Love is the mainspring, the only great moving force of all rightly constructed society.

This by some of our castle builders seems to be pretty correctly apprehended. The mistake made by them, however, with reference to it, which is quite as serious .as any other of the series, being that God can be dispensed with and love can be obtained from circumstances. Love is felt to be necessary to their schemes for the regeneration of society, but the simple-minded souls think it can be manufactured by reasonings, and regulations, and self-interest; forgetting that love, such love as is required for this business of re - making society, and delivering it from the foul fiends that enslave it and the hellish miseries that sit upon its heart, can only come from that God, Whose nature is love, and through the Christ Who gave Himself to death, in order that from His Cross there might flow out to all men the Water of Life.

III. Just in proportion as these principles triumph in the hearts and consciences of men will Millenial blessedness prevail. If you have God's rule accepted, and righteousness and love overflowing the whole earth, then you will have peace, plenty, happiness and every other attendant blessing abounding in the same measure. If these principles are victorious over only a certain number of the nations, then only so far will your Millenium extend. If it were possible for them to be triumphant over only

ONE SINGLE HEART,

then would that Kingdom of Heaven which is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost dwell in that soul alone. Nay, if these principles are only triumphant to a certain extent, whether it be in a nation or in an individual - if God only possess a part of a heart, or a portion of a community, there will be an equally mixed and limited condition of righteousness and love, and necessarily only a proportionate amount of satisfaction and joy.

IV.  It follows, then, that the most effective methods of advancing the happiness of mankind, and bringing in the Millenial reign, must be the extension of the rule of God in the hearts and lives of men, and the spread of the principles of righteousness and love. This is the road which leads most surely, and directly to the happiness of the race. There is nothing of virtue, or of good report, there is nothing that is true, and lovely, nothing that is honoring to God or beneficial to man, body or soul, in any philosophical or religious system of either ancient or modern times that is not included in these principles. The only way to bring the Millenium into the world, is to establish it in the heart of the individual, and the only way to do this is to bring that individual into harmony with God; to make him a true man - empty him of selfishness and fill him with love.

Then, don't let us be drawn aside by any inferior ends. They will tell you that the divorce of capital from labor, unjust and oppressive laws, the illiteracy of the masses, the vices in which the lower strata of the people have been allowed to wallow so long, are the causes of the destitution and crime and misery that prevail. And, in a sense, they' will be speaking the truth. But there are causes more serious by far, back of all these, namely,

THE DIVORCE OF GOD FROM HIS OWN WORLD,

and the ocean of wickedness and selfishness which has swamped mankind in consequence.

THE PRACTICE AND PROPAGATION OF THESE PRINCIPLES IS THE WORK OF THE SALVATION ARMY.

Very vaguely they may be apprehended, and very imperfectly, and unworthily they may be advocated by many who fight in its ranks, and yet I think the humblest Salvationist will be found feeling after them, desiring that their exemplification should be his own experience, and their advocacy, the great business of his life, nay, counting himself a success or failure accordingly.

1. He wants God to be honored, exalted, and worshipped by all men. He desires this to be the case in his own soul, and he continually longs for power to bring every thought, and feeling in his own heart into subjection to the will and purpose of God. He believes in God. God is a great living reality to his soul. He owns Him before his fellows. All his marchings, uniform wearing, and banner bearing, are all invitation to his neighbors and friends to come and join him in this recognition. He knows that God is the remedy for the sorrows of the race – he has proved it himself. He was weak, and wicked and miserable until he submitted to His authority, and through Jesus Christ obtained the forgiveness of his sins. . He believes it is just the same with all the rest of mankind, and consequently longs to see all men reconciled to God and enrolled in the Army's and engaged in His service to the uttermost of their ability with every faculty possessed, and with every moment of their time.

2. The true Salvationist believes in being good. He knows no real ground for concluding that his religion will be of any value either in this life or the life to come, unless it produces holiness of heart and life. To him, faith without works is dead, corrupt, injurious, a mockery, a delusion and a snare. While his every hope of meritorious consideration, hand solely on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, he believes that such a reliance, if genuine, will be evidenced by a corresponding life of pureness and love. Based therefore, on his own experience, and on the teaching he continually hears in the Army, in seeking the happiness of others, he ever strives to deliver them from their miseries by showing them a Saviour Who can deliver them from their sins.

3. The ruling passion of the true Salvationist is love. Selfishness to him is the essence of sin, is of the nature of the devil, and the very opposite to the spirit of his Master.

The first breath of his Salvation life is a yearning for the deliverance of some relative or comrade, and usually his first prayer is a cry for mercy on their behalf.

Hence, his aggressive spirit, his public marches and proclamations, his combination and discipline, his willingness to suffer, to sacrifice, and to die.

A genuine Salvationist is a true reformer of men.

HE ALONE IS A REAL SOCIALIST,

because he is the advocate of the only true principles by which the reformation of society can be effected. His confidence for the future is not based alone on the theories he holds, nor on his own willingness to lay down the things he has, even to his life's blood, on behalf of the bodies and souls of men, but in that Millenial heaven which God has already established in his own heart, and, through him and his comrades, in the hearts of so many thousands more.  To him, the Millenium is already in a measure, an accomplished fact. He has got a piece of it in his own breast; some of his neighbors, who were the most unlikely, have found this, "Kingdom of Heaven" also; and he argues that what has been done for him and for a handful of his acquaintances, can be done for all.