mystic obscurity. The sensuous gives place to the spiritual; the objective and visible to the subjective and invisible. Time had given a different turn to the idea, shaping it in accordance with the later date and theological character of the work. The downfall of Judaism and heathenism, the overthrow of heretical tendencies within Christianity, are the successive phenomena attached to the advent. The idea of return shifted its attendant circumstances according to the stages of early Christianity. The conclusion of the whole is, that the coming of which Jesus himself spoke was dynamic, implying that the gospel would assert its influence over the course of events, and its transforming power in the hearts of believers. He regarded it as near, and it was so; though not the visible thing which the disciples expected. The second advent is mentioned very briefly in the Apostles' Creed, "he shall come to judge the quick and the dead." The Nicene has, "he shall come again with quick and the dead." says, "from whence he quick and the dead." fession contains the same tenet, though it is not expressly stated. The Augsburg Confession affirms that "in the consummation of the world, Christ shall appear to judge, and shall raise up all the dead, and shall give unto the godly and elect eternal life and everlasting joys," etc. The Helvetic Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism have similar language. Thus the creeds propound as an article of faith. Christ's visible return to perform certain functions. The apostles and early Christians looked for the event as near. That it was foretold in some form by Jesus himself cannot be denied ; but if his expressions were misunderstood, as they probably were, the creeds are out of harmony with his meaning, though they agree with glory to judge both the The Athanasian Creed shall come to judge the The Westminster Con that of his disciples. The teaching of the fourth Gospel on the subject is rational. He has come in his spiritual power over the hearts of men, and will come with greater effect in the future. The King of truth reigns with progressive illumination, shedding his beneficent light over a sinful world. The view that commends itself to the thoughtful, excludes a personal advent of Christ from heaven to earth. We agree with his own language rightly interpreted; not with that of most New Testament writers, which the creeds of the Churches repeat. The founder of Christianity came and promulgated principles capable of regenerating the world; and no future coming can be expected, unless the increased efficacy which those principles exert be called so. Swedenborg says rightly, "It is a vain thing to believe that the Lord is to appear in the clouds of heaven in person." CHAPTER III. THE RESURRECTION. WITH the return of Christ is associated the resurrection. This is called the anastasis from among the dead, the anastasis of the dead, or the anastasis.1 This is the rising of the soul from the under-world, or its emergence from the state into which it entered at death. Other meanings assigned to the word in the New Testament are incorrect, such as the rising of the body out of the grave.2 The teaching of Paul is that the awakening 1 ἡ ἀνάστασις ἡ ἐκ νεκρῶν, Luke xx. 35; ἡ ἀνάστασις τῶν VEкρv, Matt. xxii. 31; Acts xvii. 32; 1 Cor. xv. 12; Heb. vi. 2; ǹáváσтαois, Matt. xxii. 28; Acts xvii. 18; Luke xx. 33; John xi. 24. 2 See Bush's Anastasis, chap. vi. p. 144, etc. of the dead takes place at the return of the victorious Jesus: "The Lord himself will descend from heaven at a signal-shout, at the voice of an archangel and at the trump of God, and the Idead in Christ shall rise first." "1 "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for it will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." 2 "For the state we belong to is in the heavens, whence also we wait for as a Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change the fashion of our body of humiliation, to be conformed to his body of glory." Sometimes this rising is ascribed to God, but that is tantamount to saying that it is effected by His Son.1 Does the apostle mean all the dead or the pious only? The question can only be answered satisfactorily after an examination of his lan |