he Apocalypse refers to a
gospel announcement taking place at the present time, considering that
a distinctive feature of this age is a large increase of the knowledge
of the facts and laws of nature, and that possibly, contemporaneously
with such knowledge, God may vouchsafe a fuller understanding of the
Book of Revelation, and a discernment of the [oe]onian gospel it
proclaims (compare Dan. xii. 3, 4). That the true interpretation of
the Apocalypse will eventually be reached is implied by the words,
"Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book" (Rev. xxii. 10).

On reconsidering the arguments of the Essay it occurred to me that it
would be proper to take notice in the Appendix of one other subject.
In pages 9, 15, and 63 the doctrine that immortality is dependent on a
state of perfected righteousness is regarded as "self-evident." I
{135} now think that the use of that term is objectionable, inasmuch
as, according to the title of the Essay, every such statement ought to
rest wholly on Scriptural ground. I propose, therefore, to adduce here
passages of Scripture which indicate an intimate relation between
righteousness and life. Out of many texts which might be cited for
this purpose, I have selected two, as follows. First, when under the
law, Moses said to the Israelites, "I have set before you life and
death: choose life," they must have understood his words as signifying
that on condition of submission to the will of God and obedience to His
righteous laws, they might look forward in faith to the enjoyment of
the future covenanted life. (See what is said on this text in p. 28.)
Again, the same dependence of life on righteousness forms an essential
part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, although taught in a different
manner. St. Paul, for instance, has given in Rom. v. 18, the following
summary of Christian doctrine. Therefore as through one transgression
(__di henos paraptomatos_), unto all men, unto condemnation (_eis
katakrima_), so through one righteousness (_di henos dikaiomatos_, i.e.
the obedience unto death of Jesus Christ), unto all men, unto
life-justification (_eis dikaiosin zoes_), where, it should be noticed,
_zoes_ is not a dependent genitive, but, as in many instances in New
Testament Greek, a genitive of quality. Thus this text declares that
the justification of all men, which is their being eventually made
righteous through the operation of the Son of God, has the quality of
conferring _l