Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/318

 denotes a manifestation of Divine truth respecting Him, in the hearts of the faithful; and by His being seen coming in the clouds of heaven is meant a revelation of Divine truth respecting Him, to those who are in states of obscurity concerning it. All states of obscurity concerning the Lord and His kingdom are as clouds which hinder the "Sun of righteousness" from appearing, and the Lord is said to come in those clouds when that obscurity is enlightened; because then, by means of that light, the Son of man—the Lord in His Divine Humanity—will be acknowledged. Thus the sign of the Son of man in heaven denotes the activity of Divine truth among the angels, and His coming in the clouds of heaven, primarily refers to the Lord's appearing in the world of spirits, and not in the world of nature as is commonly supposed.

But although the world of spirits was to be the primary scene in which the Lord would fulfil His promise to come again, there can be no doubt that the prediction was intended to have a striking significance in reference to the world of men. The Lord's personal appearance in the one was designed to have a remarkable influence in the other.

Whatsoever takes place above must, sooner or later, display itself below. All that transpires in nature is from a spiritual origin. It is from the spiritual world that men think and act. It is common to ascribe those results to the mind of the thinker and the actor; but that arrests inquiry into the origin of thought and act before it has completed its work. What is mind? Is it not a spiritual faculty associated with a spiritual power other than itself? It does not live of itself; how then can it think or act from itself? Do we not sometimes experience the sudden suggestion of ideas which we are not conscious of having made any effort to obtain? Have not ideas sometimes