are we not bound to study it? Is not the injunction, "search the Scriptures," applicable to this as well as to other parts of the word of God? Did not Daniel during the Baby-. lonish captivity study with prayer and fasting the prophecies of Jeremiah, and thus learn the fact, that the deliverance of his nation was near? Suppose that before he attempted to learn its meaning, Noah had waited till the prophecy respecting the deluge had been fulfilled, and where would he have been? The flood of waters would have overwhelmed him. Suppose that Lot had done the same with respect to Sodom. He would have found himself wrapt in a sheet of living fire. Suppose that the early Christians had done the same with respect to Jerusalem. They would have perished in the calamities of the seige. As it was, they fled to Pella, and were safe. They obeyed the injunction of St. Peter, ye have "a more sure word of prophecy," unto which "ye do well to take heed." Wherefore, my brethren, "gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and hope to the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto you AT THE REVELATION OF JESUS Christ;" (1 Pet. i. 13,) for while fulfilled prophecy is of great use in convincing the skeptic, unfulfilled prophecy is still more important in comforting and consoling the believer. This is the age of humiliation and depression to the church, and of triumph and prosperity to the wicked. But the day is at hand, when agreeably to the promises of God, as we have suffered so shall we reign with Christ Jesus. It is now many years since the time of his departure, but the passage selected for our text contains a sure promise of his return. "Ye men of Galilec, 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." (Acts i. 11.)

The text naturally suggests two important inquiries, HOW and WHEN Will he return?

I. In the first place, How will he return?

Not spiritually: for in this sense he has always been present, fulfilling the promise, "Lo! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world," Matt. xxviii. 20.

Not providentially: for in this sense he has never been absent. Administering in his divine nature a providential government over the world, he has always been present in this respect.

In what sense then can it be said that he shall return. Let us recur to the words of the text, and the circumstances under which they were uttered, and we can easily obtain an answer to the question. Our Savior and his disciples, you will recollect, were assembled on the Mount of Olives. After his resurrection from the dead they had enjoyed his personal instructions for forty days. During this period, as the evangelist informs us, he had spoken to them of "the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.”*____“When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord wilt thou AT THIS TIME restore again the kingdom to Israel? Respecting the fact of such a restoration, they had not the shadow of a doubt. Though Jerusalem had lost her place among the nations, they knew full well that prophecy had for ages foretold the glories of Messiah's reign. And they asked him if тHis was the time when as a king and a judge he should sit on the throne of David. "Lord, wilt thou AT THIS TIME restore again the kingdom to Israel?" The answer of our Savior is well worthy of deep consideration. He does not so much as hint, that their views respecting the triumphs of his personal reign were incorrect, but merely tells them, that it was not for them to know the time.t This they were to leave, with filial confidence, in the hands of their heavenly Father. Eighteen centuries of humiliation and

See Part II, Lecture V. †See this point discussed in Part II. Lecture V. See also Bickersteth's "Time to favor Zion," p. 7, Philadelphia ed. 1840.

depression were to roll over the church, and therefore in great mercy and compassion the Savior replied-" It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight." They had perhaps hoped that this was the time when MESSIAH was to commence his glorious reign, as KING OF THE JEWS. If so, what a disappointment it must have been when he suddenly vanished from their view. They thought perhaps, that they should never see him again. How cheering therefore the declaration of the angels who informed them of his return.. "And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold 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." (Acts i. 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.) Now how did they see him go into heaven? In the visible glories of his humanity. So, then, shall he return. He ascended in a cloud; and such, as we read in the book of Revelation, is his first appearance, when he cometh again. "And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle." (Rev. xiv. 14.) He ascended from the Mount of Olives; and thither shall he return, for as we read in Zechariah, "His feet shall stand IN THAT DAY upon THE MOUNT OF OLIVES." No language can be more explicit, in stating the fact of A PERSONAL COMING of the divine Messiah. It would seem, from a comparison of several passages, as

if there were two aspects or manifestations in the second advent of Christ.* At first, (as we learn from the passage cited from Rev. 14th chapter and 14th verse,) he appears alone, unattended, and seated upon a white cloud. This is perhaps the time when he appears to his expecting disci ples,- -as we read in Heb. ix. 28,-" and unto THEM THAT LOOK FOR HIM shall he appear the second time, without sin unto salvation." It is probably at this manifestation, that the dead in Christ are raised from their graves, and the living saints who love his appearing are caught up to meet him in the air.

There is no evidence that when he ascended, he was seen by any but the saints and angels. And in like manner it seems probable, that during this first aspect of his second advent, he is seen by them only, and not by the impenitent of the earth. For at this period he is alone, on a white cloud, but when seen by the wicked at the second aspect of his coming, he is attended by myriads of

* See this topic ably discussed in some numbers of the "American Millenarian," for 1842:—a semi-monthly paper published in the city of New York, on the literal interpretation of prophecy.

The term "millenarian" has no reference (as, from the similarity of sound, might at first be supposed,) to the "Millerites," or followers of Mr. William Miller. It is a term which has long been in use, as one may see in Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, to designate those who believe in the doctrine of the primitive Church, that the Lord Jesus Christ, the promised King of Israel, and his risen, changed, and glorified saints will reign per sonally on the earth during “the thousand years” spoken of in Rev. xx. 4–6. It is derived from the Latin word "mille," which signifies a thousand, or rather from "millenarius," which is itself a derivative of "mille," and occurs in the writings of St. Augustin; (See Leverett's Latin Lexicon.) The word "Millenarian" is synonymous in Ecclesiastical history with the word " Chiliast," which, in Brande's valuable Encyclopædia, is thus defined;--“ Chiliasts. In Eccl. Hist. believers in the second advent of Christ to reign a thousand years on earth."--Harper's ed. New York, 1843; p. 224.

† We are here speaking of created intelligences. We do not mean either to affirm or deny any thing with regard to his being seen at this time by evil spirits-Satan, the "Prince of the power of the air," and his rebellious allies.

his saints. We read in the prophecy of Enoch, as quoted by St. Jude, "Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand (myriads, Gr.) of his saints, to execute judgment," etc. Jude 14, 15. In Zech. xiv. 5, "the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee." In Paul to the Thessalonians we read of "the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints," (1 Thess. iii. 13,) and that he "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, and to be admired in all them that believe," 2 Thes. i. 7-10. To the same effect in the Revelation of St. John, i. 7: "Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him, (i. e. the Jewish nation): and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him." And to this agree the words of our Savior, when he wept over Jerusalem, "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate." "They were still to have a house, but that house would be desolate; Judea would be theirs, but themselves exiles from its provinces." (Melvill.) "For I say unto you, that ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord," (Matt. xxiii. 38, 39.) Was this advent at the destruction of Jerusalem? By no means. For then the Jewish nation, instead of looking with penitential sorrow on him whom they had pierced, and acknowledging him as the Messiah, the coming one in the name of the Lord, were more obdurate than ever, and all the kindreds of the earth, instead of wailing because of him, were making merry in their hearts, and rejoicing in their iniquities.*

See McNeile's Lectures on the Jews, and his Sermons on the Second Advent.