an awful crash—" with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: " for "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." And all are answered now!

"Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence." As these words are spoken by the people of the living God, they denote, not only their joy in the coming manifestation of the Son of God, but also in their own manifestation as sons of God with Him, and in Him likewise, that is to say, that He no longer keeps silence as to them, but openly manifests them as His before the world. For "when Christ, who is our life shall be manifested," pavepwon, "then shall we also be manifested," pavepweneeoon, "with Him in glory." So Paul speaks of "the earnest expectation of the creature waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God;" and he says, "we who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." The spirit is redeemed already. Oh! but we cannot be satisfied without the redemption of the body likewise! So John, in the same strain, speaking to believers says, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God: (and this is because we are sons of God,) "therefore," he says, "the world knoweth us not" (that is, as sons of God: it does not recognize us as such,) "because it knew Him not" (that is, as the Son of God: "for had they known" Him as such, Paul says, "they would not have crucified the Lord of glory"). And then John goes on to say, Behold, now are we the sons of God, and 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 now this glorious manifesta

tion of the Son of God, and of all the sons of God in Him, has come.

But what are the manifestations of His coming? We are told here-"A fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him." These are the usual concomitants of the Divine presence. It was so when "the Lord descended upon" Mount Sinai, at the giving of the Law to Israel. "And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the Mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled." "And Mount Sinai was altogether

on a smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly." "And the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the Mount." So will it be at the second coming of the Lord Jesus, as the Psalmist tells us. "The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice "-" a fire goeth before Him, and burneth up His enemies round about. His lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw, and trembled. The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.'

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And then the Psalmist proceeds to detail some of the events, which are consequent upon His coming. In the first place he says, "He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth that He may judge His people."

The judgment here spoken of is the judgment of the righteous, which is distinct from that of the wicked, which will not take place until after the Millennium.3 Hence our Lord speaks of the resurrection of the righteous as being distinct from that of the wicked. "Marvel not at this for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation." So Paul speaks

1 Exodus xix. 16, 18, 20.

2 Psalm xcvii. 1, 3-5.
4 John v.
28, 29.

3 Rev. xx. 11-15.

of "a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust;" and in another place he said, he "counted all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ;" "if by any means he might attain unto the resurrection from the dead;" or as the original has it, è§aváσтaoiv, “the outresurrection from the dead," that is, the resurrection of the righteous from out of the wicked dead, who are left to the second death. This then is the judgment of the church of God, which Peter tells us must take place the first. "For judgment must begin at the House of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God? "4

This judgment is not, however, a judgment of condemnation for that judgment has already passed upon all believers in the person of their Head and Surety Jesus. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit; neither can anyone "lay anything to their charge" on this head any longer; on this very ground, i.e., the death of Jesus, in their place and stead.' But this is a judgment προς, "with reference to" "things done by them" "in the body," to determine their place and status in the Kingdom. And this judgment is reserved for Jesus Himself, as we saw before, and as He told John in Patmos, "I am He that searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works; "s and as He told His disciples likewise when on earth, when "the Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels,' "then He shall reward every man according to his works." Hence Paul reasons with those who passed uncharitable judgments upon their brethren, "But why dost thou judge. thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ." "So then every one of us," he says, "shall give account of

himself to God." And in another place he says, "Every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor;" and speaking to the Colossians, he says, "let no man beguile you of your reward.”3 While John, in the same strain, writing to "the elect lady and her children," warning her against "deceivers," says, "look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a FULL reward."4

We see then that this judgment is not a judgment affecting our standing as believers before God; for that was finally and for ever settled for us on earth, when we believed in Jesus to the saving of our souls: as Paul asserted even of the blameable Corinthians, that they should be-not "blameless," but ȧveykλýтovs, “uncharged in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." But this is a judgment affecting our conduct as believers, touching, amongst other things, our faithfulness or unfaithfulness to light and grace received from God, and the use or abuse we may have made of the talents with which He has entrusted us, as our Lord Himself tells us in His parables of the talents and of the pounds, which I shall afterwards have to notice.

"He shall call to the heavens from above:" for the angels are to be present, and to witness the judgment of the saints as our Lord has told us, "Whosoever shall confess Me before men, him shall the Son of Man confess before the angels of God." For this is the time spoken of in the Revelation," the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that Thou shouldest give reward unto Thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear Thy name, small and great."8 But observe it is said, "He shall call to the heavens from above." What can this mean? I think the meaning is this. We are told that Jesus has "ascended up far above all heavens;" and that when He was thus" received up into heaven," He "sat on the right

3 Col ii. 18. 4 2 John 8. See and compare Matt. xxv. 14-30, with Luke xix. 12-27.

1 Rom. xiv. 10, 12. $ 1 Cor. i. 8.

Luke xii. 8.

21 Cor. iii. 8.

hand of God; " waiting there, as we have seen, "until His enemies be made His footstool"-having entered there as our "forerunner," and "for us."3 His people, however, as I have shewn in my first book of "Outlines," are at present only in "Paradise," in "the third heaven."4 When, therefore, it is said, that Jesus, when about to leave His Father's throne, "calls to the heavens from above, and to the earth that He may judge His people," I apprehend the meaning to be, that His voice-which is now to shake both heaven and earth will peal from "the highest heaven," down through "the third heaven," to the very earth itself, to gather the whole of His saints together to meet Him in the air, as He descends to the earth. For the words that follow are, "Gather My saints together unto Me"-words which are no doubt addressed to the angels, whom the Lord calls to this office. Observe then, that where Christ is, there must His people be also. They cannot long be separated from Him. The members must at last be all united to the Head. Paul sweetly appeals to this, when, writing to the Thessalonians, he says, "Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled."

And the angels are, as we have seen, the Lord's messengers to effect this; as indeed Jesus Himself also has told us, "He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet," is this the "call" spoken of?" and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."s "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. Wherefore comfort one another," says the Apostle "with

1 Mark xvi. 19.

4 2 Cor. xii. 2, 4.

7 2 Thes. ii. 1.

2 Psalm cx. 1.

5 Haggai ii. 6; Heb. xii. 26.
8 Matt. xxiv. 31.

3 Heb. vi. 20. 6 Matt. xxiv. 31.