making out Antichrist to be this or that system, will only perplex the mind, and land it in constant uncertainty.

If this principle of interpretation be objected to, anything I have now to say will go for nothing. If admitted, our subject is plain, and I will add blessed, to any ordinary understanding, willingly receptive of Divine truth. To proceed at once, then, to the root of this matter: the Lord, who was about to leave His disciples, and who knew the sorrow it would give them, and who wished to inspire them from the very outset with what He intended as a sure antidote to that sorrow, said, "Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. In my Father's house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."

Taken literally, these words are plain and simple, and were assuredly full of a present comfort to the disconsolate disciples; but taken otherwise, they are vague. For example, some affirm, that the Lord meant that some day, by death, He would come for us; the answer to which is, that at death He does not come to us, but we go to Him. But surely if He had meant death, He would have said death, and not as He does, "I;" that is, Himself.

There are others who surmise that He meant He would come by His Spirit. But surely the Lord could have said Spirit; i. e., He could have said what He meant. But that He did not mean the Spirit, is obvious from the fact, that farther down in the same conversation He tells them of the coming of the Spirit, whom He calls "the Comforter," and who alone, during His absence, could supply His place, or could comfort them. What He meant was, "I will come again;" that is, I myself; and "if I come again, I will take

you to myself, that where I am, there ye may be also." If you doubt this, place yourself in a like position. Suppose a husband or father, going to a distant land, and that he said, "I am going to a far land to provide a home for you; and if I go and provide a home for you, I will come again, and take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also." Now, with words such as these, would any one understand them to mean that the speaker would send a messenger merely, or a letter? or that they to whom he spoke were first to go to him? Certainly not. And when the Lord said, "I go to prepare a place for you; and I will come again, and receive you to myself," the words were definite-meaning that He HIMSELF would come.

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But mark the words in yet another aspect. They were addressed to His disciples; not surely to the world, not to men in general, but to His disciples, and through them to us. "I go to prepare a place for you."

And mark the purpose, which is simply stated-viz., to take us to Himself to the home of which He speaks "the Father's house"-that where He is, there we may be also.

The next place where we meet with this promise is in John xxi. 18, where the Lord said to Peter, "When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself;" but, adverting to his martyrdom, said, "when thou art old, another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not." This the Lord said, "signifying what death he should die." "Death ?" inquires Peter. "How is this? The Lord said He would come for us, and now He speaks of death! I do not understand." Then looking at John, he inquires, "Lord, and what shall this man do?" shall he, too, die? Then said Jesus, "If he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?" What I would adduce from this is, that it was evidently an understood thing among these disci

ples, that some day the Lord would come for them, even as He had said. They had heard His promise, and had believed it, and were expecting its fulfilment.

As to how He was to come-whether publicly to the world, as, doubtless, He will do, or, first of all, for them-we learn in the 11th verse of the 1st chapter of Acts, where, while the disciples stood gazing stedfastly toward heaven, as Jesus disappeared from their sight, two men stood by them in white apparel, and said, "Men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." "In like manner. That is, as I understand, it is not to be a universally public event. The "like manner" does not in anywise answer to the solemn pomp and awful grandeur and terror of the coming to judgment. That He could so come-that millions of angels could come in a way known to His saints, but private to the world, is evident from their songs at the first advent, which none heard but the shepherds. The words, "IN LIKE MANNER," may indicate that as the Lord's departure was known only by His disciples, so also may it be with His return.

We know that after His resurrection, the Lord came many times to the disciples, and once from heaven to him who describes himself as "born out of due time." But none saw Him, save the disciples and Saul of Tarsus. Even the soldiers who were with Saul saw Him not. So, when the heavens were receiving Him out of their sight, none but the disciples saw Him. Said the angels, "in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven," will He return-His going away and His coming again alike unobserved by the world.

Have you ever thought of it?-how that the world has never yet seen a risen Christ. The Rabbis, the Pharisees, Pontius Pilate, the Jews, the soldiers—they

never saw Him after He was put down into the tomb. As for the world that now is, they never so much as ask for Him; they make no inquiry for Him. It would matter to Europe and the world if told, "the Emperor or the Queen were dead!" but the world makes no count of the fact that the Son of man was dead! It would matter little to the world if no Christ had been crucified, and no Christ had risen, or had entered into heaven. The world cares not about a Christ in heaven, or a Christ who is to come to the air for His saints. Remember it was to the disciples, and not to the world, He said, "I will come again for you; and I go to prepare a place for youa mansion, a home, in the Father's house:" and when the members of the mystical body, of which He is the Head, are complete, He will come again, and for this one purpose that I may receive you to myself." Beloved, we need no other interpretation of these words than their own, which is self-evident. Nothing could be plainer than that JESUS HIMSELF-not then as Judge, but as Son, from heaven-is to come; and to come for us; and that His coming is to be after the manner of His departure.

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But, then, not only is He thus to come for us, but we, at a subsequent time-how long it may be, we know not-are to come with Him. These truths are both needful to each other. For if we are not first gathered to Him, we cannot appear with Him, as we shall do at the appearing and kingdom. Our Princess could never have appeared with the Prince, unless she had first come. So, as to the first, we shall be caught up "to meet the Lord in the air ;" and as to the other, we know that when He "shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory."

Beloved, this is no mere theory of our own, but a blessed truth, found in the words themselves. Search and see. Remember, it is "the same Jesus" who shall

come Oh, what unnatural thoughts many have of Jesus! They make Him quite another Jesus. But it will be the same Jesus, with the same head that once wore the thorny crown; and the same ever-loving heart; and the same hands and feet once perforated; yes, the same JESUS is to come for us-not with marred countenance, or on the bleeding tree. Ah, no! but in His glory and beauty, and rest, which we shall share; as we sing

"With Him shall my rest be on high,

When in holiness bright I sit down,

In the joy of His love ever nigh,—

In the peace that His presence shall crown."

As to His coming to the earth: and before the millenium, turn to Acts iii. 20.

"He (God) shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, whom the heavens must receive until the times of restitution of all things." Mark, it is not, "He will send the Spirit," or the Gospel, which He has sent, but "He shall send JESUS CHRIST, whom the heavens must receive until" the end of the world? No: but until the times of restitution;" until the millennium-according to that word, (Matt. xix. 28,) "Ye which have followed me, in the regeneration (or time of restitution) when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones." When I

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brought an objecting friend to this verse, he said, “I have always rejected the thought that Christ could be here till the end of the world, but I now see it is ' until,' and not AFTER' the times of restitution;' not until the great white throne is set up, but until the times of refreshing, or millennium, which shall come from THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD.'" (Acts iii. 19.)

It is plain, then, from these passages, that He will come first, as we have seen, specially for His saints;