Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/161

 The passages on which the idea of the earth's destruction has been founded, relate to changes in the Church, and this fact is the key by which they are to be interpreted. With this key, all their difficulties may be unlocked and explained. It is of the Church, as a Divine institution, respecting which God has been pleased to make a revelation. Mind is the real subject on which it treats; and material things are used only as the vehicle to represent it. The Church is a mental and spiritual condition of mind among the people. Several Churches have existed in the world, the histories of which are recorded in the Word. The Lord planted them; men have corrupted them; hence one has passed away and another has come. These Churches are called, in the Word, heaven and earth: heaven, in reference to the spiritual life they were intended to possess; and earth, in reference to the natural duties they were required to perform. It was the consciousness belonging to such life and duties which the Lord addressed when He said, "Hear, O heaven; and give ear, O earth; for the Lord hath spoken." The starry firmament and the solid earth have no capacities to listen to His instruction. How plain is it that the exhortation, "Sing, O heaven; and be joyful, O earth; break forth into singing, O mountains; for the Lord hath comforted His people," is language not addressed to stellar and terraqueous worlds, but to men, to whom the life and obligations of the Church are subjects of delight and gladness. The psalmist, speaking of the Lord, said, "The heavens are Thine, the earth also is Thine; as for the world and the fulness thereof, Thou hast founded them." Although this is true in regard to the natural universe, the main purpose of the passage is to remind the Church that all the good