Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/90

 in His sight; and for these He effected spiritual liberty and life, for He said, "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed:" "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." And how was this accompHshed? This is sufficiently explained by the facts that He cast out devils by the Spirit of God: and that with authority He commanded the unclean spirits and they obeyed Him. These considerations clearly show that the Lord's purpose in the natural world was to redeem men from the power of those wicked influences which had set in upon them from the world of spirits. His humanity was, as it were, the field in which those influences could be met and conquered by the Divinity within. As these conquests were effected, a cloud of evil influences was driven away from the minds of men; a new light from heaven was enabled to descend for their enjoyment; and then a new condition of religious life was begun in the world, of which the establishment of Christianity is the evidence.

Now when we remember that the Lord cast out the spirits with His word; and that it is the word which He speaketh that judgeth; we must at once perceive that the Redemption which He accomplished, implies not only a Divine coming, but also the execution of a judgment. He had authority to execute judgment; and He said, "For judgment I am come into this world." John the Baptist plainly referred to this event when he said, "He that Cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and with fire: whose fan is in His hand, and He will throughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the