Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/52

 This sight clearly implies a Divine coming; and the consequence was the evolution of a state better adapted for the acceptance of those teachings which referred to the love and worship of the Lord; hence laws upon those important subjects were immediately revealed.

All the Divine manifestations which are recorded involve those principles, and display such facts. They belong to that wisdom and mercy which the Lord is perpetually endeavouring to confer upon mankind. Wheresoever the Lord's presence is recognised, there something of those blessings must be experienced. He must have come, in some way, to every individual, in every age, who has been regenerated; they have been born of His Spirit, and by such coming, they must have been delivered from some impurities in their nature, and gifted with some graces by which to indicate His presence; and thus a kind of judgment must have been experienced,—for what else can be the Divine judgment but the removal of what is evil and the provision for the safety of what is good.

All that is written in the Word concerning the Lord's coming is accompanied by some intimations of a judgment. Where no evil is loved, the Lord is recognised to be present; and He is perceived as coming when any evil love is felt to be receding. Such recession is always attended with pain and shame, fear and remorse; and is not this a judgment? Such coming and judgment are particularly treated of in the Word, when evils had reached their height. All evil has its boundaries, beyond which it is not permitted to pass; and when it has arrived at those limits, it surrounds its subjects with restraint, and inflicts a punishment upon them. This punishment is called a judgment, and it necessarily continues until the evil is removed. It appears to the evil doer, so long as he does it with impunity, that