precede the advent of Him who is King of kings and Lord of lords.

But some will say, we cannot accept this prophecy of Christ's return, which is clearly preMillennial, or personal. May it not be spiritual? I answer, spiritually he has come already. "Where two or three are gathered together in my Name, there am I in the midst of them." If we meet in Christ's name, Christ is in the midst of us. We have not to look forward to his advent in that sense, for in that sense he is here. Again; this must denote an advent different from that spiritual presence that is understood to be in all churches. He says, "Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." And yet, he says, in another part, that he will come again, and receive us to himself.

In the second place; it is not is providential advent. Christ is in every fact in history, in every incident of the world, reigning, ruling, ordering all things to the glory of his name, and to the good of his people.

It has also a character and a concomitant so peculiar, that it cannot refer to his coming to destroy Jerusalem. Can it be said that on his advent to subvert that illustrious capital, the Jews looked upon Him whom they had pierced and mourned?

They rather blasphemed the holy name by which they were called. Can it be said that when Jesus came to destroy Jerusalem, he gathered his elect from the four winds of heaven? Can it be said that he came to destroy Jerusalem in the splendour of the lightning, in the cloud, with power and great glory? If you will so torture language as to apply these verses to that providential advent, you must not blame the Roman Catholic if he find in Scripture transubstantiation, purgatory, and the worship of the Virgin Mary. We should take the Bible literally, wherever its literal interpretation is not inconsistent with its own previous explanations; and until we can see a better than the literal interpretation, we must accept it as the mind of the Spirit of God. For instance, it was said by an ancient prophet, that Jesus should come sitting upon an ass, and a colt, the foal of an ass. An ancient interpreter of one class would say, "We cannot suppose that the Messiah will come literally so; we must understand it to mean that he will come in very lowly circumstances." But he literally came sitting upon an ass, and a colt, the foal of an ass; and he quotes the prophecy as literally and verbatim fulfilled in his case. We therefore understand that this prophecy will be literally fulfilled, and justly think that to apply it to the destruction of Jerusalem is to apply phraseology where it is not carried out by actual facts.

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Some excellent Christians think that it refers to

Christ's coming at each individual's death. But when a Christian dies, does Jesus come like lightning from one end of heaven to the other? When a Christian dies, can it be said that Jesus comes from heaven with power and with great glory? Does the trumpet then sound? Do the dead then rise? Do all the tribes of the earth then mourn? It cannot be said so. It must therefore refer to a coming or an advent subsequent to this, and such as is described in other passages of Scripture, where Jesus is said to come the second time to them that look for him without a sin-offering unto salvation. The Apostles themselves thought that Christ was then about to restore the kingdom to Jerusalem, and they said (Acts i. 6), "Wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" But what was his answer? "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons." He assumes that the kingdom will be restored; he does not condemn their idea that the kingdom will be restored; but only, "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons.' And again, when they stood looking steadfastly toward heaven, as Christ ascended in the cloud visibly before them, "two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye 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;" that is, in the cloud with power and with great glory.

We have therefore in all these passages a reference to Christ's second or personal advent; and therefore I believe, with Job, "that my Redeemer

liveth, and that I shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God; whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another." What a glorious hope! What a blessed thought, that we are not forsaken orphans, that our world is not a cast-off orb, but that Jesus has engraven it upon the palms of his hands, that his name shall be engraven upon it, that it shall reflect his image, and that a world that began with Paradise shall end with a better, a brighter, and a more glorious one than that with which it dawned!

But it is added, "He shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven." Let us here recollect the parable in which it is said, "the harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels." But what do the angels do? They first gather the wheat into barns, and then they cast the tares into the fire. So here, Christ sends forth his angels, and they shall gather his elect from the four winds of heaven. Are we amongst the elect? Shall we be numbered with the wheat? Shall we be gathered into Christ's barns? Are we prepared to enter into that rest that remaineth for the people of God? Who are the elect? It is not difficult to know. The doctrine of election itself is a mystery, but the elect themselves are not undistinguishable, even in the midst of this obscure but perplexing dispensation. They are those who have been chosen of Christ.

The word "elect" means chosen- they that are chosen of Christ. Such unquestionably there are. "Chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, that ye should be holy." "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." (1 Pet. i. 2.) I have not the least doubt that the doctrine of election is true. But what is that doctrine? That God saves me, not because of anything in me, or of anything done by me, but because of the riches of his grace, and the sovereignty of his Almighty love. But there are some Christians who deny that there is any such doctrine; but, singular enough, while they deny the name, they admit the reality. Take the lowest Arminian, who is a true Christian, and ask him, "Do you mean to say that the first movement towards heaven is on my part?" he will answer, "No, no; God must first draw before we follow; God must first speak before we answer." Well, grant me that, and I will not quarrel about the name election, since we agree about the reality; for if I am chosen irrespective of anything in me, it matters not whether that choice was made ten minutes ago, or thousands of years ago. It is not a question of time, but a question of grace; and if you admit that all grace in the heart of the believer is not an original thing, but a response to a first movement on God's part, you grant the substance even when you deny the name of the doctrine of election. But if you ask,