Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/113

 ciples, when He was present with them. By the phrase, "being present with you," He, of course, meant His personal presence in the natural world; but when, after His passion, he reminded the disciples of His conversation on the subject, by saying, "While I was yet present with you," it is evident that He was not then present with them in the natural world as He had previously been. Indeed, if He had been so, He might have been seen by any one; but we find that He only appeared to His disciples, and that for them to see Him it was necessary that their eyes should be opened that they might know Him. As, then, His presence with the disciples before the passion was in the natural world; so His presence with them after His resurrection, and when He reminded them of His conversation on the subject, was not in the natural world: neither was it in heaven or hell; how irresistible, then, is the conclusion that it must have been in the world of spirits! Seeing then that the Lord, in the process of ascending into that heaven, from which He had descended, was pleased to pass into this intermediate region, is it not reasonable to suppose that the spirits of all flesh do the same when passing on to their final destination; a destination, decided by the quality of the life they have led and the faith they have cherished? But the Scriptures furnish us with special cases which illustrate this reasonable conclusion. All the passages in the New Testament which speak of judgment, invariably treat of that event as taking place at a time when the subjects of it are no longer in the natural world; where, then, can they be but in some department of the spiritual world? That, therefore, must be the scene of judgment, and living souls