Page:The Judgment Day.pdf/77

 idea, more Gods than one. For to talk of there being two or three divine persons, and yet only one God, is to talk nonsense. It is to trifle with the most solemn and important subject, by using words which convey no definite or intelligible idea. It is to adopt a manner of speaking, which the truth seeking spirit of the present age, will not much longer tolerate. Either candidly confess that you acknowledge and worship a plurality of Gods, or else tell us what distinction exists in your mind between a divine Person and a divine Being. But if it seems too hard a task to do either the one or the other, we will leave you to reflect up on the subject, while we assure you, that we believe in and worship but one divine person, one God; and that God the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we read of the "coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven," we understand the coming of the Lord himself, as divine truth, revealed through the clouds of the literal sense of his word. His coming is the coming of the Internal and spiritual meaning of the word, in glory and power. It will be seen that this view will at once reconcile and harmonize many passages in the word, which, otherwise appear very contradictory and discordant. As, for example, after having been repeatedly taught in the word, that judgment will proceed from the Son of Man, the Lord says: "If any man hear my words and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world but to save the world. He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken the same shall judge him in the last day." The apparent contradiction instantly vanishes, the moment that by the Son of Man we understand the word, or the Lord as divine truth.

It will be seen, therefore, that by the coming of the Son of Man, we understand the coming of the word in its glory and power,—a fuller developement of its internal and spiritual meaning. Heretofore the church has possessed no test, by which it could, with absolute certainty, separate the