Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/121

 for ever: this, therefore, must be the subject of the judgment; and the world of spirits into which it passes, when the natural body dies, is the place of that experience. And these bodies are said to have slept, not to have been dead; because sleep expresses a condition of obscurity which had been induced upon them by certain unfavourable influences which had surrounded them during their residence in the world. It was in reference to such obscurity that the apostle said to the Ephesians, "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." Those bodies of the saints are said to have come out of their graves, to inform us that they were delivered from the external restraint which had beset them; and by their going into the holy city a revelation is made of their elevation into heaven, for that is the holy city which is meant; and there they are said to have appeared unto many, because there they would become associated with many who were grounded in similar principles to themselves. The removal of those external disorders which an unfavourable influence had hung about their character, and which did not agree with the internal sanctity of their lives, constituted that final act of judgment by which they were brought into the liberty with which they could enter into heaven. And this proves to us that it is the soul which is the proper subject of the judgment, and that the world of spirits is the only scene for its accomplishment.

Under this view of the narrative all its difficulties vanish, and the whole phenomenon is brought within the reach of reasonable intelligence. When the manners and opinions of an age become corrupt, men of honest minds and devout purposes do not escape their dangerous seductions. The external character and general conduct of such are brought