death. The condemnation of unbelievers does not mean merely that they shall be left in the situation in which they would have been if there had been no Saviour. It means that this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world and they loved darkness rather than light, and that the rejection of mercy so overshadows their original guilt that the Saviour could say, "If I had not come and spoken unto them they had not had sin, but now they have no cloak for their sin." Natural justice determines that guilt must be in proportion to the light against which sin is committed. How enormous the guilt of sin must be when it is committed against all the light which the Gospel sheds on the character of God and the exceeding sinfulness of sin, against the most powerful motives and the holiest influences which the love of God can supply? When we think of the love of God spurned and His testimony belied, of the sacrifice of Christ slighted and His glory despised, and of the fervent persuasions and long-suffering expostulations of the Holy Spirit resisted, it is impossible to question the enormity of the guilt incurred by every impenitent hearer of the Gospel, and the appalling condemnation that shall distinguish him from all other sinners, however vile.

This twofold result, life or death, is always contemplated in the office of Christ. He who proclaims the acceptable year of the Lord is the same who proclaims the day of vengeance of our God. He who comes without sin unto salvation to them that look for Him, is the same who comes in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel. He who hung upon the cross is the same who shall sit upon the great white throne. When He sits there, it will not only be a meet vindication of His insulted name in the presence of His enemies, but it will be God's loud and living testimony to the universe that it is

only after mercy has been rejected that judgment is executed. There is terrible significance in the fact that if you are condemned He will pronounce the sentence, and the wrath in which you perish will be the wrath of the Lamb.

In fine, let believers fully understand their true place as the followers of Christ. The ordinary life of man, when we look beneath all its grotesque and ill-timed levities, is a vast funeral procession, in which the din and the shout of madmen cannot altogether drown the wail of its ceaseless dirge. All its paths meet at last beneath the shadow of the yew. Even the path of earthly glory leads but to the grave. But believers, children of light and of the day, have altogether another destination. They are in a long triumphal procession following the Captain of our salvation, who has gone up with shouts of victory. The advanced head of the procession is already far out of sight, and we in this day are bringing up the rear. The way may often seem long and rugged, but who thinks of weariness amidst the joy of victory? Mocking enemies may deride the pageant whose glory carnal eyes cannot see; malignant enemies may with fierce assaults endeavor to break the line, but divine power baffles their malignity, and "thanks be unto God who always causeth us to triumph in Christ." We are marching on, not to the grave, but to the meeting place where the Almighty victor Himself will welcome the gathered celebrants of all ages-a mighty multitude which no man can number, to that feast, the marriage supper of the Lamb. Patience, brethren, we are almost there.

THE DAY OF CHRIST.

IN both the Old and the New Testament the consummation of the plan of redemption is connected with the appearing of Christ in glory. To believers in this dispensation His appearing is the grand object of hope, as the occasion when they shall be introduced into all His glory and joy. Strange it would be if, loving Him unseen, and, even now, rejoicing in Him with joy unspeakable and full of glory, they did not eagerly long for the day when they shall see Ilim as He is. No one, indeed, can truly long for that day who is not assured of his salvation, but it is unaccountable that "the Church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" should be disturbed by a rumor that an event was at hand for which they had been waiting as the fulfilment of all their joy. Yet such is the impression which men receive from the language which is used in our English version of the first two verses of 2 Thess. ii.

The impression which this language conveys is very dif ferent from the impression which would have been conveyed if the word rendered "is at hand" had been translated as it is in other passages in which it occurs. It is part of a verb which occurs seven times in the epistles of Paul. In five cases it is properly rendered "present," as, for example, in Rom. viii. 38 and in 1 Cor. iii. 22, where "things present" are contrasted with "things to come." future tense is rendered "shall come."

In 2 Tim. iii. 1 the But it is the perfect

tense that is used in the passage before us, and, the proper translation is "hath come." The mistake, therefore, against which these Thessalonians were warned is not that "the day of Christ is at hand," as something still future, but that "the day of Christ hath come," as something then actually present. Now it is not difficult to understand how those who had been waiting for the Son of God from heaven as the completion of all their hopes, should be agitated and distressed by a rumor that He had come and their hopes were all disappointed. Their dread was not that He was coming, but that He had come; and that in the gathering of His saints unto Him they had been left out, like the foolish virgins in the parable, who are represented as standing at the closed door, vainly crying, "Lord, Lord, open unto us."

But in order to a fair understanding of the passage, it is necessary to attend to a distinction in the terms used by the Apostle-"the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,” “ our gathering together unto Him," and "the day of Christ". for, however the events indicated by these terms may be connected, the terms are not by any means synonymous.

"The coming of the Lord," though one event, must include many acts. Thus, throughout the Scriptures we find that His coming is the occasion not only of the resurrection of those who sleep in Jesus, the gathering of His people unto Him and their introduction into His glory and His rest, but the occasion also of the accomplishment of God's promises to Israel, after they shall have been chastened and purified in the great tribulation which shall attest God's last indignation with their ingratitude and rebellion. It is the occasion also of the overthrow of all the corrupt sovereignties of the earth and of their removal to give place to the glorious kingdom of heaven. It is the occasion also of weeding out of His kingdom all things that offend, when He shall

execute His strange and terrible work of judgment upon the ungodly, which shall issue in completed salvation to His people. Just as His first coming to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself includes all that passed from Bethlehem to Calvary, so His coming again the second time without sin unto salvation includes all that is necessary to the accomplishment of that end.

"Our gathering together unto Him" is described by Paul in the fourth chapter of his first epistle to the Thessalonians, and must evidently be the immediate desire and expectation of believers, although all that they hope for in the coming of the Lord will not be consummated until the work of judgment, in which they shall be His companions, is finished and His kingdom actually established.

"The day of Christ" is evidently distinct from this, for while Paul found it necessary to instruct them regarding our gathering together unto Him, he says that "they knew perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night." In the Old Testament "the day of the Lord,” that "great and terrible day," is always described as a time when the Lord shall pour out His wrath upon His enemies. And in the New Testament we find the Lord and His apostles using the phrase in its familiar and well-understood sense. The Church shall not be exposed to the wrath-storm of that terrible day, but, safe with her Lord, shall be associated with Him in judgment. "Our gathering together unto Him" must therefore precede "the day of Christ," though both are connected with "the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." We can, therefore, well understand why these Thessalonians should have been shaken in mind and troubled by the thought that the day of Christ had come, since in that case the gathering of the saints unto Him must already have taken place, and they were left behind.