enemies, of every kindred on the face of the earth, shall be filled with consternation and with grief.

I Thess. 4: 13 to 5: 6. "But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep; that ye sorrow not, even as others, which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord; that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent [anticipate—come before] them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise, first; then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you; for yourselves

But

know perfectly, that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day. We are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others, but let us watch and be sober." Here, again, the same scene is brought before us, with some additional particulars. Here is the second coming of Christ, the sounding of the trumpet, the rising of dead saints, and their union into one company with those remaining alive, while sudden and unexpected · destruction, from which there is no escape, comes upon the careless. Christians, therefore, should not mourn for their brethren who sleep in Jesus, as the heathen mourn for their departed friends; but should look forward with joyful hope to the time of their triumphant meeting, at the second coming of Christ. Nor need they be informed of the precise time

when he will come; for, being children of the day, they are awake and prepared for it, and cannot be taken by surprise by it, as the careless children of the night will be, to their unavoidable destruction.

The apostle, writing again to the same church, adverts again to these transactions, and dwells more at length upon the doom of the wicked. II Thess. 1: 6-10. "It is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you, and to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints." Here the destruction of the wicked is fixed at the time of the coming of Christ and the glorification of his saints. Passages formerly quoted show that these events will take place at the time of the resurrection.

II Pet. 2: 9 is evidently a parallel passage. "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the Day of Judgment to be punished." And II Pet. 3: 7. "The heavens and the earth which are now-are kept in store, reserved unto fire, against the Day of Judgment and perdition of ungodly men." Paul, in the passage last quoted from him, spoke of the time when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God," "who shall be punished with everlasting destruction," when his saints are glorified. Peter speaks of the deliverance of the godly, and the reservation of the unjust to the Day of Judgment to be punished; and he tells us that the Day of Judgment is the day of the perdition of ungodly men, and that the present heavens and earth are reserved unto fire against that day. The deliverance, the fire, the punishment, the perdition, show that he spake of the same time of which Paul spake; the time of the second coming of Christ, and of the General Resurrection.

5

From a comparison of all these passages, it is manifest that, as Paul preached to the Athenians, Acts, 17: 31, God hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." Concerning that day, let us now hear the words of Christ himself.

John 5: 28, 29. Marvel not at this: [that is, at the spiritual resurrection, the regeneration, of the dead in sin, who shall hear the voice of the Son of God; which he has just mentioned ;] for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." It is of no use for those, who, like Hymenæus and Philetus, (II Tim. 2: 18,) err concerning the truth, to say that this "resurrection is past already;" for it is a resurrection of "all that are in the graves;" a resurrection by which they "shall come forth" out