Page:The Judgment Day.pdf/203

 the Lord's second coming has at last arrived,—in what man pner would it be reasonable to conclude that the important tidings would be conveyed? Are we to behold a multitude of angels in the air, sounding great trumpets, and vocally calling the attention of the world to the crisis which has arrived? In their spiritual, which, as regards this subject, is their only true sense, the prophecies which speak of such an announcement doubtless must be (and we trust have been) accomplished;—from heaven, that is, from the Lord through heaven,—the divine truths of the Holy Word must be [and we trust have been] discovered anew; for of the revelation, or communication of Divine Truth, the sounding of trumpets is, in the Word, the expressive symbol:—but if, as I hope, has been sufficiently proved, the second advent of the Lord was not to be of a personal nature; if the scene of the last judgment was not to be in this lower world, any otherwise than as to its effects: it follows, that it was not by a visible exhibition of angels with trumpets that the annunciation was here to be made. Yet, most unquestionably, some annunciation was necessary. The events which have passed in our times, and which are transacting still, upon the theatre of the globe, are indeed such as proclaim, with a voice of thunder, that some most extraordinary operation from the spiritual world upon the world of nature is in action; they are indeed such as demonstrate, when looked at under the proper aspect, that the last judgment has been performed, and that the second coming of the Lord is taking place; thus when the truth is distinctly proclaimed, they bear witness to it in the most decisive manner: but they require a human announcer to give their loud voice a distinctly speaking tongue. The second coming of the Lord, also, as we have seen, is mainly effected by the re-discovery of the momentous and saving truths contained in his holy Word: among the signs of the times which we have noticed, are the loosening of the hold which erroneous sentiments had taken on the minds of men, a general change in men's modes of thinking, and such an alteration in the state of the human mind as indicates a preparation for the reception of juster views of divine truth than have heretofore prevailed; but still it is obviously requisite that the truth itself should be explicitly announced, and, of consequence, that a human instrument should be raised up for that purpose.

This appears to be the evident dictate both of reason and of necessity; and to these is added the confirming suffrage of experience. Never did a similar crisis in the history of the divine economy occur before, but human agency was