"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."

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

But now that we may finally establish the fact before us, let us turn attention for a moment to an allegory which occurs in 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 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 three-score days. This persecution is accompanied by a word of woe to the inhabitants of the earth and

ראלה *

b 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 far, and these from the coast of Sinim."

† Revelation xii.

of the sea, for that the devil is come down to them, having great wrath, because he knoweth he hath but a short time. Now this allegory speaks for itself. I have assumed that the woman represents the church of Christ. This cannot be assuming too much. There is no room, I think, for doubt concerning it. But if this be granted the details scarcely need a word of explanation. The man-child is the first-fruits; a certain completed number of the Lord's elect. The Church immediately before the great tribulation, gives forth this, her first-born, to the hand of God, who straightway takes it to Himself.

All then is clear so far, and we may conclude with 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 grave, shall 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.

But 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, even in that night, (for the call will reach to every place upon the surface of our globe, where it is day and where it is night) "two men shall be in the one bed, one shall be taken and the other left: two women shall be grinding together, one shall be taken and the other left." Which then would it be in our case? TAKEN or LEFT? O, 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 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. O, surely this is not a time for lukewarmness, fer deferring things of everlasting moment to a future day, but for the most earnest circumspection, watchfulness, prayer, and zeal. O, let us see,— each one for himself,-that we are not found wanting in the sight of the Great Judge of all.

But we have not yet quite dwelt sufficiently upon the state of our Redeemer's Church. 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, 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." But this allegorical evidence of a Church existing and persecuted, after the firstfruits have been removed, is corroborated by another passage more clear and free from allegory in the twentieth chapter. Here we find St. John when

speaking of the introduction of the Millennial reign, making reference to certain, who should suffer martyrdom under "the Beast," (which is the name given to the Antichrist in the Book of Revelation). Martyrs therefore who are to suffer death after the first-fruits of the earth shall have departed. "And 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 let us see how this can be, for there is a great difficulty 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 tribulation, to warn them of the descent of Jesus into the air to call His saints. The unbelievers

*Revelation xx. 4.

will not-I think-hear a trumpet-sound, nor will they see a lightning flash. They will, indeed, be witnesses of these things, "immediately after the tribulation of those days," as the twenty-fourth chapter of St. Matthew testifies: but not before the tribulation. Probably the dead in Christ will be raised silently and invisibly, before suspicion is excited amongst men,-no sod upturned: no grave disturbed: only the body gone; and so, perchance, it may be missed. Then as suddenly the removal of the living people of the Lord, will follow. In silence also, and without a sign afforded to the unbelieving world, (for anything that has appeared in Scripture to the contrary.) They will be taken hence,-drawn up at once to Christ. So they too will be missed and sought for upon earth, but nowhere found. In every neighborhood will be the cry for them. In house after house will be a bitter wailing raised because of them. O, what a day of sadness and of terror will that be! What dread will sit on every countenance! for thus shall the world be in one moment stripped of all the pure, and just, and holy who adorned its surface, and be left a WICKED WOrld indeed.

For

But what may we expect will follow if the day of grace be not for ever at that moment closed? Most certainly A GREAT REVIVAL OF RELIGION. imagine the sensation which must be produced among the unconverted masses by the sudden removal of each Christian from the surface of the whole earth. One, two, three, out of every family gone-no man can tell where-passed from sight in the twinkling of an eye!! Two in a bed; one taken! two at a mill;