Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/50

 To have a fair understanding of those predictions which treat of the last judgment and the second coming of the Lord, it will be of great service to observe that, before those events, several other Divine manifestations and judgments are related. Plain indications of their causes and results are also recorded. If we are enabled to comprehend the principles involved in those remarkable histories, we shall be prepared to see, with greater certainty, the true nature of those phenomena which are spoken of as belonging to the second advent.

When we read of the coming of Him who is "omnipresent," it may seem evident that the idea of His local coming demands a particular consideration. He who is everywhere present, and who from eternity knoweth all things, cannot be said to come in any ordinary acceptation of the word; and yet there can be no doubt that there are intelligible senses in which He has come, and will come. How plain is it that His coming to the regenerate, that is, to those who are ready to open the door when He knocks, has reference to their elevation and perception, rather than to His descent and arrival. If the Lord may be said to depart from those who are wicked and depraved, surely He may be said to come to those who are sufficiently wise to recognise His presence. In such a case He may, with great propriety, be said to come to us, when in reality it is we who go to Him! It is our movement upward which induces the appearance of His descent. As those graces are received which tend to assimilate us to the Divine character, it is plain that we are rising; and that the Lord, who is always present, is not descending, but unfolding and revealing Himself, more and more, to our interior consciousness. It must have been some such fact as this to which the Lord referred, when He said, "If a man love