Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/292

 which have been the cause of it, do not at all interfere with the evidences of its execution. Uncommon disorders in the Church, and in the conduct of the people, certainly point to the necessity for such a deliverance, but they prove nothing concerning its accomplishment. The evidence for that is to be sought for in those new advantages which soon afterwards break in upon society, notwithstanding the obstructions which have been thrown in their way by the hereditary evils, disordered loves, national prejudices, and the selfish interests of mankind.

As all changes in the causes of things must necessarily be attended with new effects, so it will follow that any great changes which may take place in the world of spirits,—and who will say that such changes cannot occur?—must be succeeded by some corresponding mutations in the world of men. They will primarily affect the interior of men's minds, these being of a spiritual nature; and subsequently they will act upon the natural affairs of men in the world, that being their ultimate purpose. Consequently, a judgment in the world of spirits must induce a change in its spiritual action upon mankind; and this must be followed with some alteration in their condition and proceedings in the world, which will display itself in a twofold manner.

,—As we learn from Scripture history has been the case under all similar circumstances,—there will be a display of unusual dissensions and troubles, especially among the nations in which the Church has professedly existed; and, amidst the absorbing interests which those calamities will induce, there will be the unfolding of a variety of ameliorating circumstances tending to show that there is some beneficent sunlight breaking through those clouds of darkness by which the nations have been distressed.