Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/55

 done in his "natural body." Man is man by virtue of his soul. It is for the sake of the souls of men that the Lord comes, and it is upon the souls of men that He executes His judgment: it is the soul which is immortal, and, therefore, this only can be the subject of a result that is eternal. The world of spirits then must have been the scene of several Divine manifestations; and the souls of men which are collected there must, in each case, have been the subject of a judgment. But, whenever a judgment has been effected there, its consequences, sooner or later, have always been indicated in the affairs of men: first, in the experience by them of some natural calamities; and, secondly, in the display of some general munificence. The reason is, because the former were intended to reveal to us the separations of the wicked from the good, and their condemnation; and the latter, to show us the safety and elevation of the faithful. Whatsoever transpires among men in the natural world must, more or less directly, have sprung from some corresponding causes in the spiritual. The recognition of these principles is necessary to a right comprehension of the phenomena which marked particular epochs in the history of the three Churches to which we have referred.

Although the planting of those Churches, and their decline, fall, and final judgment, are very apparent in the histories that are given; yet it is evident that the language in which those facts are described is symbolic. It is hardly possible that an intelligent reader of the early portions of revelation can have overlooked this fact. It stands out with a prominence which modern learning has spoken of with great force. The histories, indeed, are sufficiently plain to enable us to see when some fearful calamity of the Divine permission, or some favourable