Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/219

 Him; that He will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other; judge and bless them; and that He will cut asunder the faithless, and appoint them their portion with the hypocrites, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. It is supposed that the material world will be the scene of those events, and the phrase "end of the world" is interpreted to mean the dissolution of the universe and all that it contains. Some, indeed, do not think this latter catastrophe will follow immediately after the other purposes of His advent are completed, because they suppose that the Lord will reign a thousand years upon the earth. These are called millenarians. Christians in general have been so long accustomed to receive the above views as the correct interpretation of the Lord's teachings, that we shall not wonder if any should be startled when their accuracy is called in question. The influence of traditional opinions on theological subjects is not always favourable to the clearest sight or to the greatest freedom; and any difficulties surrounding them, which reason may discover, are summarily disposed of by the assertion that they are holy mysteries to be implicitly received in faith. But there is a class of minds rising up in all the Churches by which this course is felt to be unsatisfactory and distasteful. The common course is to assume, that "the Fathers" have done for us all the requisite thinking on those important subjects, and that our duty is simply to accept as a finality that on which they have decided. Thus prejudices have been formed, inquiry has been hindered, and progressive thought has been brought to a stand-still. With this we confess we have no sympathy. We do not think that teachers in past ages of the Church have extracted from the Word all that it is