Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/319

 come into our minds, which have actually interrupted the progress of a train of thought in which we were engaged? Are not impulses excited, and inclinations inseminated, by some interior forces which we find to be foreign to ourselves? Are we not the subjects of temptation, and do we not feel the influence of some dictate to resist it? Who has not experienced the struggle of two opposing forces within him, and felt that the result would depend upon the way in which he employed his freedom? All these are well-known facts; and they can only be explained upon the principle that men are in continual association with the spiritual world, and that they think and act from thence. If this be remembered, no difficulty need be experienced in seeing that all extraordinary occurrences which take place in the spiritual world must, sooner or later, cause their influences to be felt among men in the natural world.

This is a point which will admit of many ilustrations from the historical portion of the Scriptures. We will, however, only refer to one; it has been cited before, but it is eminently useful to our purpose now. When the Lord made His first advent, He said, "For judgment am I come into this world;" "now is the judgment of this world;" "the Prince of this world is judged;" "be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." Now where was the scene of those events? Nothing then took place in the natural world which answers to these descriptions. Where did they occur? The only satisfactory answer is that they must have occurred in the world of spirits: the results of those occurrences were subsequently displayed in the world of men: thus showing the connection subsisting between men and their spiritual associates in the spiritual world. We learn these facts from the Scriptures. All the extraordinary