But be all this as it may, the reader will now see that it does not divide the advocates from the opponents of the premillennial advent. The ultimate destiny of our present physical system, is a question on which neither party are unanimous amongst themselves, and which may safely be regarded as an open question.

CHAPTER L

CHRIST'S SECOND APPEARING THE CHURCH'S BLESSED HOPE.

PREMILLENNIALISTS have done the Church a real service, by calling attention to the place which the second advent holds in the Word of God and the scheme of divine truth. If the controversy which they have raised should issue in a fresh and impartial inquiry into this branch of it, I, for one, instead of regretting, shall rejoice in the agitation of it. When they dilate upon the prominence given to this doctrine in Scripture, and the practical uses which are made of it, they touch a chord in the heart of every simple lover of his Lord, and carry conviction to all who tremble at his word; so much so, that I am persuaded nine-tenths of all who have embraced the premillennial view of the second advent, have done so on the supposition that no other view of it will admit of an unfettered and unmodified use of the Scripture language on the subject that it has its proper interpretation and full force only on this theory. Assertions to this effect abound in the writings of all modern premillennialists. But the fact of the scriptural prominence of this doctrine, and their inference from this as to the time and the objects of it, must not be confounded. On the former, we are cordially at one with them; on the latter, we are directly at issue with them. And believing, as we do, that the clearing of these preliminary points will go far with many to settle the whole question, we think that a chapter on each of them will not be misspent.

With them we affirm, that the REDEEMER'S SECOND APPEARING IS THE VERY POLE-STAR OF THE CHURCH. That it is so held forth in the New Testament, is beyond dispute. Let any one do himself the justice to collect and arrange the evidence on the subject, and he will be surprised-if the study be new to him—at once at the copiousness, the variety, and the conclusiveness of it. It is but a specimen of that evidence that we can give here.

Is it careless SINNERS, then, or lax professors, that are to be warned?

"What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works." (Matt. xvi. 26, 27.)

"The Lord is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night." (2 Pet. iii. 9, 10.) "Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire." (1 Cor. iii. 13.)

"Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him." (Jude 14, 15.)

Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen." (Rev. i. 7.)

Is it SAINTS that are to be stimulated to a fearless testimony for Christ, to patient suffering for his sake, to hope, to constancy, to heavenly-mindedness-to universal duty?

"Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God." (Luke xii. 8.) "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings: that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy." (1 Pet. iv. 12, 13.)

"Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord." (James v. 7.)

"Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." (1 Pet. i. 13.) "Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that, when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching." (Luke xii. 35-37.)

"And now, little children, abide in him; that, when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming." (1 John ii. 28.) "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth." (Col. iii. 4, 5.)

"It doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in Him (π aur, in the coming Redeemer) purifieth himself, even as he is pure." (1 John iii. 2, 3.) "The crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me

only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." (2 Tim. iv. 8.)

"Our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look

for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ." (Phil. iii. 20.)

"That which ye have (already) hold fast till I come.” (Rev. ii. 25.)

When the Thessalonian converts turned to God from idols, it was, on the one hand, "to serve the living and true God;" and on the other, "to wait for his Son from heaven.” (1 Thess. i. 9, 10.)

This "waiting for Christ" was the distinguishing excellence of the Corinthians : "Ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Cor. i. 7, 8.)

f

The last passage suggests a class of texts, in which the second advent is placed in a light peculiarly interesting. As the Church never dies, and all that are in Christ between the two advents are viewed as one continuous living body, so in the case of them all-whether dying before or found alive at his coming-grace is represented as terminating in glory, without an allusion to aught as coming between. The close of the believer's career is regarded as merging in the solemnities of the second advent; the beams of his Lord's glory are seen brightening the horizon of his present abode. Riveted to the day when the Lord is to rend the heavens and be seen on his great white throne, all intervening events are absorbed, the whole intermediate space vaulted over, and that august and decisive scene fills the view, communicating its high tone to the character, and supplying a motive of its own to every duty.*

"Homines omnium ætatum conjunctim unum quiddam repræsentant: fidelesque jam olim expectantes, habentesque se loco illorum, qui victuri sunt in adventu Domini, pro eorum personâ locuti sunt.

D