Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/309

 was enabled to descend. The first indications observable, when a certain class of natural clouds is about to be dispersed, are the flash of the lightning, the roll of the thunder, the descent of the rain, and other attendants of a tempest, by which life is endangered and property destroyed. After a while, however, the storm subsides, a calm sets in, the blue sky appears, and the sun once more shines forth with brilliancy and beauty. Something similar to this occurs in connection with the last judgment and the second coming of the Lord. The earliest evidences given to the world that these clouds of spiritual darkness, which had been so long overshadowing the Church, were being removed, are to be found in those unhappy commotions which distressed every nation in which Christianity was professed. Wars, with their attendant calamities, inflicted great suffering upon the people. But in the process of time these disasters subsided, and then a new era began to dawn upon the world, fraught with advantages to mankind, unparalleled in the history of our race. The first part of this marvellous drama revealed to us the judgment by which wicked spirits had been consigned to their dire abodes: The second part disclosed the judgment by which good spirits had been elevated into heaven; and by those two judgments the way was prepared for the second coming of the Lord. This coming, however, is not to be understood as a personal advent upon the earth, but as a Divine influence proceeding from the Lord through His Word, and operating beneficially upon the minds of men. It was by means of His Word that He effected His judgment in the world of spirits, and it is by means of His Word that He is to come with power and great glory to