The Millenarians are those who believe that Christ will reign personally on earth for a thousand years; and their name, taken from the Latin mille, a thousand, has a direct allusion to the duration of the spiritual empire.

The doctrine of the millennium, or a future paradisaical state of the earth, it is said, is not of Christian, but of Jewish origin. The tradition is attributed to Elijah, which fixes the duration of the world, in its present imperfect condition, to six thousand years, and announces the approach of a Sabbath of a thousand years of universal peace and plenty, to be ushered in by the glorious advent of the Messiah. This idea may be traced in the Epistle of Barnabas, and in the opinions of Papias, who knew of no written testimony in its behalf. It was adopted by the author of the Revelation, by Justin Martyr, by Irenaeus, and by a long succession of the fathers. As the theory is animating and consolatory, when it is divested of cabalistic numbers and allegorical decorations, it will no doubt always retain a number of adherents.

However the Millenarians may differ among themselves respecting the nature of this great event, it is agreed, on all hands, that such a revolution will be effected in the latter days, by which vice and its attendant misery shall be banished from the earth; thus completely forgetting all those dissensions and animosities by which the religious world hath been agitated, and terminating the grand drama of Providence with universal felicity. We are not unmindful of the prophetic language of Isaiah, (49:22, 23,) together with a sublime passage from the book of the Revelation, (11:15,) with which the canon of Scripture concludes -- "Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers, [they shall become good themselves, and be the protectors of religion and liberty,] and thou shalt know that I am the Lord, for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me. And the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever." (See Matt 13:29, 30; 27:32. Luke 17:29, 30. Acts 3:21. Heb.1:12. Phil.3:9, 11.2 Pet.3:13. Rev.20:1-6, and chaps.21, 22. Apoc. chap.21. Ezek. chap.36.)