out of heaven "-having been caught up with the Lord in the air till this fiery baptism was finished-" coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And so shall they thus be

for ever with the Lord."

A passage has been quoted from Daniel xii. 2, which seems at first not to sanction this idea: "Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.' If this be strictly and literally translated, it would imply that the resurrection of all shall take place at once; and that when the whole are raised, some will be for everlasting life, some for everlasting death. But it is remarkable that here again our translation is at fault. A most distinguished critic says: "There is in this passage a distinction between them that awake and them that sleep; and the strict and literal translation is: And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; these that is, those who awake" to everlasting life; and those""-that is, the parties that sleep-"to everlasting death.' "So that the passage, instead of disproving it, would prove it.

Such is the prospect before the saints of God. "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in this resurrection." How should we aspire to partake of it! how anxious should we be to be found in Him who is the resurrection and the life! And that resurrection will consist of all the individuality of every Christian that ever fell asleep. Not one flower shall perish; not one sheaf shall be lost; not one shall be wanting at that glorious Easter morn when nature shall put on her Easter robes, and no sin nor trace of sorrow shall be known in it any more. I believe at that day, in all probability not extremely remote, the dust you consigned to the grave, thinking it would be long before you should ever meet it again, shall come forth; and not one fugitive expression on the countenance shall be wanting; not one tone in the well-remembered voice shall be hushed; not one element that enabled you to

distinguish and to say, "This is my child; that is my wife; this is my husband; that is my son," shall be then and there missing. There will be perfect recognition, perpetual communion; all the excellences of humanity will survive, with none of its defects; more than its pristine glory will be there, with nothing of its subsequent decay; and so shall we be for ever with the

Lord.

LECTURE IX.

SATAN LOOSED FOR A LITTLE.

THERE are difficulties in every great truth. We see through a glass darkly-yet we see. What we are about to read and discuss has long perplexed the prophetic student.

"And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle; the number of whom is as the sand of the And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city; and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that

sea.

deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever."-REVELATION XX. 7-10.

It is right that I should show that I am not singular— not at all singular-in my interpretation of this chapter. Learning and piety hold the same views. Upon the great and essential verities of the Gospel I speak with all the dogmatism, if you like, with which it is possible to speak. I have no doubt that Christ is God; or that it is his blood alone that cleanseth from all sin; or that the Spirit of God alone changes the human heart. On these things, therefore, I speak absolutely, as an ambassador from heaven, bringing glad tidings, and laying them at the door of every man's individual heart. But when I try to explain a confessedly difficult theme, I admit at the beginning, and I would repeat it at the close,

I may be wrong. But it becomes the duty surely of one who has a Bible, and who believes that every word in that Bible is from God, to do his best to cast light upon it. I am persuaded the force and weight of evidence is in favour of the exposition I have given. If you can' present an exposition that casts more consistent light upon it, I will accept it; but I must retain my present belief till I have conclusive evidence, such as I have not yet seen, in the opposite direction. One of the ablest Greek scholars of the day is the present Dean of Canterbury, Dr. Alford. He has written a critical Greek Testament; and as he has just published the fourth volume, which treats on the Apocalypse, I felt anxious to ascertain what he says upon that very subject. He states one remarkable fact, that all the writers of the earliest ages of the Christian Church of weight and character hold substantially the same view that I have been endeavouring to elucidate in these lectures. For instance, he says: "Some of the more marked upholders of the view since that great Revolution"—that is, the French Revolution-" have been divided among themselves as to the question, whether the expected second advent of our Lord is to be regarded as preceding or succeeding the thousand years' reign or millennium. The MAJORITY, BOTH IN NUMBER, AND IN LEARNING AND RESEARCH, ADOPT THE PRE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT; following, as it seems to me, the plain and undeniable sense of the sacred text of the book itself." Such is the testimony of one who is at least competent to speak. He says in another part of the same book: "On one point I have ventured to speak strongly, because my conviction on it is strong, founded on the rules of fair and consistent interpretation I mean, the necessity of accepting literally the first resurrection, and the millennial reign. It seems to me that if in a sentence where two resurrections are spoken of with no mark of distinction between them (it is otherwise in John v. 28, which is commonly alleged for the view I am combating)—in a sentence where, one resurrection having been related,' the rest of the dead' are afterwards mentioned-we are at

liberty to understand the former one figuratively and spiritually, and the latter literally and materially, then there is an end of all definite meaning in plain words; and the Apocalypse, or any other book, may mean anything we please. It is a curious fact that those who sustain this, studious as they generally are to uphold the primitive interpretation, are obliged, not only to wrest the plain sense of words, but to desert the unanimous consensus of the primitive Fathers, some of whom lived early enough to have retained apostolic tradition on this point. Not till Chiliastic views had run into unspiritual excesses was this interpretation departed from. It now remains that I say somewhat respecting my own view of the character and arrangement of the prophecy, which may furnish the reader with a general idea of the nature of the interpretation given in the notes. And first for the principles on which that interpretation is based. The book is a revelation given by the Father to Christ, and imparted by him through his angel to St. John, to declare to his servants things which must shortly come to pass; in other words, the future conflicts and triumphs of his church; these being the things which concerned his servants.' all these, the greatest event is his own coming in glory. In consequence, it is put forward in the introduction of the book with all solemnity, and its certainty sealed by an asseveration from the Almighty and everlasting God. Accordingly, we find every part of the prophecy full of the subject. The Epistles to the Churches continually recur to it; and it forms the solemn conclusion, as it did the opening of the book. But it was not the first time that this great subject had been spoken of in prophecy. The Old Testament prophets had all announced it; and the language of this book is full of the prophetic imagery which we also find in them. The first great key to the understanding of the Apocalypse is the analogy of Old Testament prophecy. The next is our Lord's own prophetic discourse, before insisted on in this reference. He himself had previously delivered a great prophecy, giving in clear outline the main

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