Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/311

 displayed in worldly magnificence. All such interpretations of the prophecy are utterly unworthy of so profound a subject, and they are rather adapted to terrify the ignorant than to instruct the thoughtful. The very fact that "the sign of the Son of man" is to appear in heaven seems sufficient to show that He never designed that statement to be understood as a declaration that He would personally come again upon earth. The prediction that all the tribes of the earth are to see Him coming in the clouds of heaven cannot mean that all the people of the world are to behold Him descending in the clouds of the air. That would be impossible. The clouds, at their greatest elevation, are not far from the earth. When high and large, they can only be seen at a very inconsiderable distance, and