Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/223

 thing cannot be accomplished by any possibility that is known to men.

But we may be told that objections of this kind need not be pressed, because they are sufficiently answered by supposing that all men will be gathered together in the land; and thus within a locality capable of seeing Him. This, however, only suggests matter for new embarrassments. The "elect" are the only parties who are to be called "from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other;" but orthodoxy requires that all mankind who have lived, up to the period of this advent, shall become the subjects of the great assize. This idea is thought to be stated in the Revelation, where it is written that "the dead, small and great, stand before God;" and that "they were judged every man according to their works." And also in the following narrative, "When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory; and before Him shall be gathered all nations; and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats; and He shall set the sheep on His right hand but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;" and to those on the left hand, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Now, supposing this to be a description of the judgment which is to take place upon all men who have existed since the commencement of the race, a very remarkable difficulty at once occurs. It has been calculated that the number of persons who have lived on this earth since the creation, has been 36,627,843,275,075,855, a number in-