Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/279

 the sheep and the goats, to teach us that the former were in states of charity without truth, and that the latter were in the possession of truth without charity. The non-possession of truth on the part of the sheep would, for a time, keep them out of heaven, and the possession of truth on the part of the goats would keep them out of hell, and so both classes would remain in the world of spirits. It was, then, spirits of this description who became the subjects of the last judgment. The wheat and the tares grew together until the harvest.

They had for a long period been accumulating in the spiritual world, owing to the declining influence of a falling Church, until at last the influences in favour of goodness