shall be delivered: he shall not be a sufferer: he shall (as we have seen elsewhere) arise to meet the Lord, and abide with Him in safety. Moreover, 'many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake." "Many" - NOT ALL —a part only of The passage tells us,

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the dead. But who of these? as it continues, "Some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." Here we must remove a difficulty. I believe there is an acknowledged incorrectness in rendering the Hebrew words which are translated "some." They should be rendered "these " and "those." With this alteration the passage will read thus, "Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, these (who awake) to everlasting life, and those (who still sleep on in death, are reserved) to shame and everlasting contempt.

1

In Daniel's prophecy, therefore, we find the same important doctrine. The living saints shall be changed, and delivered from the tribulation; the departed saints shall be raised, and enter into everlasting life. The wicked among the living shall be left to go through the time of trouble; the wicked among the departed shall be

ךאלח 1

.... in Hebrew are the same as hi et illi, in Latin, viz., "these and these, or these and those;" as indeed we find the same words translated in Isaiah xlix. 12, "Behold these shall come from afar, and these from the coast of Sinim."

E

reserved for a future resurrection day, when they shall arise "to shame and everlasting contempt."

That we may yet more fully establish the fact before us, let us turn attention for a moment to an allegory which occurs in the twelfth chapter of the Book of Revelation, where the approach of the end of this dispensation is referred to under the vision of "the seventh trumpet." The Church of Christ is brought before us under the figure of A WOMAN CLOTHED WITH THE SUN, whose child, about to be born, is anxiously waited for by the Dragon but as soon as he is brought forth, God interferes on his behalf, and he is caught up to heaven. This done, the persecution commences against the woman, and continues for a thousand two hundred and threescore days. This persecution is accompanied by a word of woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea, for that the devil is come down to them, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. This allegory speaks for itself. I assume that the woman represents the entire Church of God, pertaining to all ages. There is no room, I think, for doubt that this is the meaning; indeed the position of the allegory proves it. But if this be granted, the details scarcely need a word of explanation. The Church, immediately before the Great Tribulation, gives forth this, her man-child, to the hand of God, who straightway takes it to Himself,

All, then, is clear so far; and we may conclude, with a very near approach to certainty, that when the day of trouble is about to dawn upon the world, every one among God's waiting people-every sincere believer in the Lord Jesus, be he living on the earth or buried in the graveshall rise to meet that great Redeemer in the air, and shall be safe with Him above, until the time arrive when He, with all His saints, shall come to execute His fearful judgments on the earth's inhabitants.

Here let us pause a moment to reflect about ourselves. If the trumpet of the Lord should sound this day for the departure of the saints of Christ, should we be ready? It is written, "In that day, two men shall be in the field," and again, "in that night two men shall be in one bed (for the call will reach to every place upon the surface of our globe, where it is day, and where it is night), one shall be taken and the other left: two women shall be grinding together, one shall be taken and the other left."1 Which then would it be in our case? TAKEN OR LEFT? If we are putting off the things of our eternity to a future day, we should be LEFT. If we have not gone as helpless sinners to the Lord Jesus Christ, that we might obtain pardon through His blood, we should be LEFT. But if we have, through grace, with all our hearts sought the Redeemer, laid our

1 Matt. xxiv. 40, 41; Luke xvii. 34, 36.

sins on Him by faith, received Him as our Lord and Saviour in sincerity and truth, then we should be TAKEN -taken up to meet our King, and be with Him for ever. Let us see each one for himself-that we are not found wanting in the sight of the Great Judge of all.

But further. We must inquire as to the state of things upon the earth when the people of the Lord shall have been called away. The woman in the apocalyptic allegory fled into the wilderness, and remained there for three years and a half, nourished and protected by God, after her man-child had been caught up. There shall be, therefore, I assume, even while the tribulation lasts, A TRUE AND FAITHFUL CHURCH: persecuted, but not forsaken; for we read that "the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood, that he might cause the woman to be carried away thereby ;" and that "the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." This allegorical evidence of a Church existing and persecuted, after the first-fruits have been removed, is corroborated by another passage, more clear and free from allegory, in the twentieth chapter. Here we find the Apostle John, when speaking of the introduction of the millennial reign, making reference to certain persons who should suffer martyrdom under "the Beast" (which is -as we

shall show hereafter-the name given to the future Antichrist in the Book of Revelation); martyrs, therefore who are to suffer death after the first-fruits of the earth shall have departed. His word is as follows: "I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them. And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the Word of God, and which had not worshipped the Beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark in their foreheads or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years."

Thus it is evident that after the departure of the first-fruits, after the man-child shall be caught up to heaven, after the Lord's waiting people shall be taken away to meet their Saviour in the air, there shall be found a CHURCH-a people serving Christ in truth; and against these a persecution shall be effectually directed, even unto death.

But a great difficulty arises here. Every believer will have gone. A vast multitude out of every nation under heaven will have been taken hence. The Lord will have descended into the heights above the world; invisibly, perhaps, to all except His people—I say INVISIBLY TO ALL EXCEPT HIS PEOPLE, for I think there is no warrant given us in Holy Scripture for asserting that there shall be any token granted to the unconverted world before the