Matt. xvi. 27. The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels.

Matt. xxiv. 30, 31. They shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet [or with a great trumpet call], and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

1 Thess. iv. 14-17. For if we believe that Jesus died, and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

1 Cor. xv. 51, 52, 53. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, (for the trumpet shall sound;) and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

From these passages we are to understand that the second coming of Christ, while it will be a real and personal descent from heaven (as real and as personal as was his ascent to heaven from the Mount of Olives), will be a far more glorious and more public event than any which this world has ever seen-uniting the grandeur of the

thunders of Sinai with the more personal and yet worldwide interest of the days of Noe.

We are also assured that, at His coming, He will be accompanied by His mighty angels, and myriads of His saints. The angels will be seen and heard, but the saints who come with Him shall not be seen; because, with the exception of Enoch and Elijah, and those who came out of their graves at the resurrection, the saints who sleep in Jesus, and whom He must therefore bring with Him, must come in their disembodied state, to receive from the earth spiritual bodies, fashioned like unto His glorious body. This explains the apparent contradiction of the two statements: "Them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him," and "The dead in Christ shall rise first." The spirits of the saints are at present in heaven; for, being united to Christ, "where He is, there must they be also," they "sleep in Jesus." When He comes, therefore, He will bring their spirits with them: "Ye are dead," says Paul to the Colossians (iii. 3), "and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." When He is come, therefore, or rather while He is yet a coming, but not yet arrived, the spirits of the saints will descend to earth; and at the sound of the trumpet will enter the spiritual bodies prepared for them, and rise from the dead incorruptible and full of glory.

Surely, in sight of such a prospect it is an unimportant question, whether or not that glorious body will be built up of the very same atoms of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and lime, which happen to be present in the body of death, and which, were we to live a little longer, would all in turn be set free to perform other duties, and perhaps contribute to the formation of other bodies.

Would it really constitute a greater identity if these same atoms should be brought together again, than if others exactly the same should be used? In the case of millions, we know that their bodies have been reduced to atoms, and if all the atoms of each element be alike, the kind of identity we are striving after is but a dream. It is not the substance, it is the form and structure, and their correspondence with our souls and spirits, that will constitute the identity of our bodies. If the marble statue of the Apollo Belvidere were ground to powder after a mould had been taken from it, and the marble dust used for common lime; the restoration of that great work of art would not depend on the same marble being used, but on the perfection with which every feature would be reproduced.*

If, notwithstanding these considerations, the believer is still disposed to the idea, that the materials of the mortal body will be again used up in the construction of the resurrection body, his opinion is certainly entitled to respect, for there is nothing in Scripture which forbids such an idea; all that is required of him is, that he should be equally tolerant of those who, in the light of science, can read and believe every statement of the Word of God regarding the resurrection, without seeing any necessity for attaching to the doctrine an interpretation which appears to them to be not only very improbable, but also very unimportant.

When the resurrection of the saints has been accomplished, the trumpet shall sound again, and then the saints, who are alive and remain, and who will, no doubt, be dwelling in every country round the whole earth, will hear that last great trumpet-call, and will feel an instan* See Appendix N.

taneous change. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, corruption shall put on incorruption, and the mortal shall put on immortality.

Then shall the Lord send forth His angels, and gather the elect from every country throughout the whole world, into one vast assembly, which will then rise from the earth to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall they ever be with the Lord.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

THE EMPLOYMENTS OF THE REDEEMED AFTER THE
RESURRECTION.

UNTIL the day of their resurrection, the redeemed are represented as having entered into their rest, and fallen asleep in Jesus. After their resurrection, such a state of inaction would be unworthy of the high destiny to which they are called, and for which they will then be so gloriously equipped. If their present mortal bodies fit the spirit for high enterprise and active labour, how much more active must they be when that which is sown in weakness shall be raised in power! With bodies possessing all the attributes of material manhood, and, at the same time, all the spiritual immunities of angelic natures, there seems to be no end to the variety, as well as the grandeur of their occupations. Like Christ and the angels, they will be able to walk and to sit, to eat and to drink, on such worlds as this; but they will also be able to pass through material obstacles, or to mount through the air, and wing their way from star to star upon the errands of their Master. Gifted with noblest thought, and endowed with high intellectual powers, they will be able to fulfil their commissions in the distant worlds to which they may be sent. Happiness is produced by the exercise of our faculties; if, therefore, the faculties of the resurrection body be not exercised, a great source of pleasure will be lost;