shall we ever be with the Lord" (I Thess. 4:16, 17, R. V).

2. A second stage will be when He comes to the earth. "The Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory; and before him shall be gathered all the nations; and he shall separate them one from the other, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats" (Matt. 25:31, 32). "And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east; and the mount of Olives shall be cleft in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south And ye shall flee by the valley of my mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azel; yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah King of Judah; and Jehovah my God shall come, and all the holy ones with thee" (Zech. 14:4, 5). From the closing words of the preceding quotation, it is evi dent that in this latter stage, His saints shall come with Him. This is also evident from I Thess. 3:13, "To the end he may establish

your hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints," and I Thess. 4:14, “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." In the air our Lord comes for His own; to the earth He comes with His own. For anything we know a considerable interval may take place between these two stages of the Lord's coming. The words of our Lord Himself in Luke 21:36 "But watch ye at every season making supplication, that ye may prevail to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man,' and the words of Paul in II Thess. 2:7, 8, "For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work; only there is one that restraineth now, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus shall 'slay with the breath of his mouth, and bring to naught by the manifestation of his coming," seem to hint that the whole period of the great tribulation intervenes between the coming of Jesus in the air for His earthly saints and His coming to the earth with His saints. This, however, does not constitute two comings but two stages in

the one coming. Bearing in mind the distinction between these two stages in His Coming Again will help to solve many of the seeming discrepancies between different texts of the Bible on this subject.

3. A third stage is a succession of events that follow His coming to the earth. Of these we shall speak more at length when we come to study results of His coming.

III. OUR LORD JESUS IS COMING AGAIN WITH GREAT PUBLICITY.

Our Lord Himself laid great emphasis upon this fact and warned His disciples against all those false prophets and teachers who should proclaim a secret coming. He said, "Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is the Christ, or, Here; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Behold, I have told you beforehand. If therefore they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the wilderness; go not forth. Behold, he is in the inner chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh forth from the east, and is seen even unto the west; so shall be the coming of the Son of Man" (Matt. 24:23-27). We are being constantly told in these days

that Jesus has come again in one person or in another, or in some new form of faith. One false teacher assures us that the second advent of the Lord Jesus Christ took place in October, 1874. Another school of error would have us believe that the revelation of the doctrines of Christian Science to Mary Baker Eddy was the Second Coming of Christ. Others have gone to the heart of Persia to find Him. Claims of a similar character are being constantly made in various quarters and a large society is now being formed in different parts of the world to watch for "the star in the east." These "inner chamber" Christs and obscure corner Christs are a humbug, long since predicted and exploded. If Christian people were more intelligent and careful students of the Word along these lines, they would not so readily fall a prey to these false teachings regarding Him. Our Lord was so careful to put us on our guard. Even at His coming for His saints there seems to be a large measure of publicity about it. We are told, "The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first." The doctrine of the secret rapture of believers does not

seem to have much support in Scripture.

IV. When our Lord comes again, He is coming on the clouds of heaven with POWER AND GREAT GLORY. His words regarding it were, "And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (Matt. 24:30, R. V). What did our Lord mean by saying He was coming on the clouds? First of all, this is a literal description of the manner of His coming, but further than that, it sets forth the fact that He is coming as a Divine person and in Divine glory. Everywhere in the Old Testament Jehovah was the One who came in or on a cloud. In Ex. 19:9, R. V., we read, "And Jehovah said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and may also believe thee forever." Again we read in Ex. 34:5, "And Jehovah descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of Jehovah." In Ps. 97:1, 2, the Psalmist sings, "Jehovah reigneth; let the earth rejoice; Let the multitudes of isles be glad. Clouds and darkness are round about him: Righteousness and jus