Father, while in all known Creeds, Eastern and Western, and also in Tertullian and Justin, and so in the Roman Creed of the second century, was probably a change made to assimilate it with the first and second articles of the Creed.

(1) The right hand of God, or of the Father is the place of highest honor and rank that the Father can give; the place of the Son and Crown Prince, to whom all authority has been given.

(2) The sitting is in the pregnant sense of sitting enthroned, in accordance with the usage of the Messianic Psalms 2 and 110, and also of the New Testa

ment.

The doctrine therefore is, that Christ is enthroned with the supreme dominion over heaven, and earth, and Hades, from the time of His enthronement onward until His second advent.

The session of Christ at the right hand is a session as Prophet, Priest, and King. As Prophet, He sends the divine Spirit to be the teacher, counsellor, and guide of the leaders of the Church and of the Church itself.

As King, He rules over the universe, subduing all enemies of the kingdom, Satan, wicked spirits, evil men, the last enemy Death. As King, He is the head of the Church as the kingdom of redemption, directing all the forces of His kingdom for the redemption of His subjects.

As Priest, He offers up perpetual sacrifice in heaven, sums up the universal worship in Himself, intercedes and interposes for His people.

The capital city of the kingdom of God is removed in Christ from earth to heaven, and the new Jerusalem takes the place of the old, with its temple, altar, purifications, and sacrifices; and all sacred institutions centre in Christ alone.

St. Paul delights in this theme, the heavenly empire, the reign of Christ over His kingdom-a comfort and joy to Christians suffering under the earthly reign of wicked kings and emperors.

Thus: "He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things. And He gave some (to be) apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ: till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Eph. 410-13).

"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself up for it; that He might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, that He might present the Church to Himself a glorious (Church), not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish" (Eph. 525-27).

In the Epistle to the Colossians St. Paul tells us that in Christ "are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden" (23). To know Christ is to know knowledge from the centre of it, the primary source of it, in the Logos. He is the supreme prophet and

teacher. So: "Our commonwealth is in heaven (Phil. 320). There is our citizenship, there we really belong; not here on the earth, which is only a place of temporary sojourn. There our King is; there is our refuge and eternal home. According to the Epistle to the Hebrews, Christ is at once the great High Priest, and the one great eternal sacrifice, once offered, but of eternal validity with the Father and to His people on earth, through their fellowship with Him in His priesthood and sacrifice (cf. I Tim. 25-6).

The reign of Christ is the reign also of His Church, His body, which is regnant in the world (cf. Rev. 59-10). So during the Millennium the martyrs reign with Christ (Rev. 201).

It is just because of the unity of Christ with His people that the Church is His body, and so shares with Him in His conquest of the world and the subjugation of all enemies. This has always been the great incentive to Christian missions, though too often it has led to an undue exaltation of the material and political interests of the Church, especially in the history of the Papacy.

Nothing is more needed in the Church than a revival of the conception of the reign of Christ. We worship a Christ, a Lord and King, who once died on Calvary, but now lives and reigns over the Church and the universe; and so not merely a historic Christ, but a present Christ, who, though absent on His heavenly throne so far as our senses are concerned, is yet present by His spirit and power in all human affairs, especially in His Church; and who grants His

special presence in the Eucharist. And it is the privilege of the Christian, by the use of the religious imagination in faith and love, to realize that presence and live under the influence of it. That removes all doubt, all anxiety, all fears for the future, and gives confidence and certainty that we are working with Christ for results which are certain and of everlasting importance.

CHAPTER X

THE SECOND ADVENT

THE eighth article of the Creed represents the Second Advent of Christ as His sixth and final redemptive act. It is a judgment of final salvation to His people, and of final condemnation to all others.

The Creed has: From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead. This article has remained unchanged from the beginning. Irenæus enlarges upon this theme. His first form has: "And His parousia from heaven in the glory of the Father to comprehend all things under one head." His second form has: "Shall come in glory, the Saviour of those who are saved, and the Judge of those who are judged; and sending into eternal fire the perverters of the truth and the despisers of His Father and His Advent."

Tertullian has, in his first and second forms, the words of the Creed; in his third form: "He will come again with glory to take the saints into the enjoyment of eternal life and the celestial promises, and to judge the wicked with eternal fire, after the resuscitation of both with the restitution of the flesh." The Creed of Eusebius has: "will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead." The Nicene Creed has: "coming to judge the living