Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/116

 judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? and it was said unto them, that they were to rest for a little season." This passage was before cited in evidence of the existence of an intermediate region in the spiritual world: it is now again produced because it clearly proves that region to have been the scene of judgment; for white robes were given to the parties treated of as an assurance that their judgment would result in future happiness.

Again; the Lord, speaking of His judgment, said, "Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice." The phrase "is coming," evidently contemplated the event as near; certainly not as one to be postponed for some thousands of years: doubtless it came within the meaning of His statement, "now is the Judgment of this world," that being one of the purposes for which He came. And where could have been the scene of such an occurrence? It did not transpire in the natural world; and, therefore, it must have been the spiritual. By "the graves," of which the Lord spoke, are not to be understood material sepulchres. He employed the term with another meaning. When denouncing the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, He said unto them, "Ye are as graves which appear not, and men walk over them and are not aware of them." The graves, therefore, signify of those states of mind in which goodness lay interred. He also spoke of such as "whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful without, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness." So that external professions which do not agree with the internal states, and which at the same time conceal them,