Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/222

 cannot suppose that He has created the universe with so much beauty in its appearance, with so much harmony in its operations, and with so much use in its existence, for the purpose of ultimately destroying it. We believe He has created it to be preserved, and not to be ruined or destroyed.

Again, it is said that "all the tribes of the earth shall mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven." The original words rendered "of the earth" properly mean of the land; that is, in a strictly literal sense, the land of Judæa. This fact, then, confines the event and the observers of it to a small locality. And if the Jewish tribes are to be the only mourners and spectators of the occurrence, where is the universality of the judgment? and if the judgment is to be universal, why are terms employed in the description which imply a limit? Why should all be represented as mourning, when some are to hear the gracious invitation, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world"? If "the tribes" mentioned meant all mankind, and that they are to see the Son of man coming in the clouds, at what elevation must His coming be displayed in order that His advent may be seen? Would not the height required for seeing Him, only a few score miles in every direction, necessarily place Him beyond the reach of our present power of vision? Could a man be distinguished at a height of five miles from the earth? We know that upon the top of a mountain much less than that height, he cannot be seen, even as a spot or a line. But, supposing such difficulties to be overcome, how are those to see Him who reside at the antipodes of the place of His appearing? indeed, how are any to experience the sight who may dwell ninety degrees beyond the place of such an advent? The