directly from Old Testament prophecies long ago fulfilled, after the manner of its usage in the Hebrew writers, and insists that symbolical portraitures of revolutions in human government and of appalling calamities of war and bloodshed connected with the ruin of cities and temples must needs be understood literally when spoken by the lips of our Lord. It is evident that the real issue with such an interpreter is over a principle of biblical hermeneutics, which must be determined by a calm appeal to the facts of usage in the great body of the prophetic scriptures.

10. Doctrine of John's Gospel. The synoptic teaching of the kingdom and coming of Christ is admirably supplemented by the doctrine of the fourth gospel. This was written some time after the fall of Jerusalem, and its peculiarly spiritual conception both of the ministry and the kingdom of Christ is worthy of special attention. The King and the kingdom are thought of as coming "from above." They are not of this world, and the heavenly King declares that his great purpose in coming into the world is to "bear witness unto the truth." His coming and his triumph are destined to effect the judgment of this world and to cast out the prince of darkness (xiii, 31).

(1) John iii, 3-7, 31-36. One of the most memorable lessons of this gospel is the necessity of being "born from above" in order to enter the kingdom of God (iii, 3-7). This teaching is not compatible with a physical and spectacular theory of the kingdom, but it supplements and confirms the lessons of Jesus in his parables. In John iii, 31-36, we have a correspondingly spiritual idea of the relation of the Father and the Son to them that enter the kingdom of God. It is the Son "who cometh from above" (¿ ¿o̟xóμevos, who is about to come), who is truly also "above all," and into whose hand the Father has given all things. His coming from above (avwdev) is spoken of in the same verse as a coming from the heaven (Ex Tov ovpavov), and is conceived as a present and continuous manifestation,' so that, as an abiding truth, "he that believeth on the Son hath eternal life; but he that obeyeth not the Son shall not see life." To "see life" is evidently the same as "seeing the kingdom of God" (ver. 3). It accords with this spiritual doctrine of his kingdom that when Jesus perceived the disposition of the people "to come and take him by force to make him king," he went away and secluded him

1In verse 13 we meet with the enigmatical saying of the descent of the Son of man out of heaven who is nevertheless in the heaven. These last words are wanting in some ancient copies, but it is difficult to explain how they came to be interpolated. It is far easier to account for their early omission than for their interpolation. They convey the thought of Christ's continuous existence in heaven even while incarnate among men.

self in the mountain (vi, 15). The popular ideal of the Messianic kingdom was not the one which he sought to inculcate, and his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, riding upon a young ass, was a symbolical act adapted to show forth the meekness and humility of this true king of Israel and the blessedness of his coming in the name of the Lord. But it was not until after Jesus was glorified that the disciples understood the significance of these things (xii, 13-16). His declarations before Pilate (xviii, 36, 37), which we have already cited to show the spiritual nature of his kingdom (comp. p. 437), are also to be recalled in this connection: "My kingdom is not of this world; my kingdom is not from hence." It cometh from above, and cometh as continuously and unostentatiously as truth itself.

(2) John xiv, 3. In this text Jesus tells his disciples that he is going away to prepare a place for them, and that he will come again and receive them unto himself. This coming again to receive his own disciples and friends (píλovs, xv, 14, 15) is most naturally understood as a process continually going on, as truly so as that which he affirms in verse 18: "I will not leave you as orphans: I am coming unto you." It would seem absurd to teach that the original disciples who heard these assurances, and all the devout and saintly friends of Jesus who have departed this life since these words were first spoken, are yet waiting for the coming of the Lord to receive them unto himself in the heavenly mansions. Rather should we believe that Jesus's desire and prayer that they may be with him where he is and behold his glory (xvii, 24) is finding continual answer through the progress of the centuries. The fourteenth chapter of John's gospel is notable for a blending of the idea of spiritual life in Christ and the eternal life of fellowship and glory with Christ in a heavenly state. In verse 23 Jesus says: "If a man love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." Here is a coming and abiding presence both of the Father and the Son. But in verse 19 he says: "Yet a little while, and the world beholdeth me no more; but ye behold me because I live, ye shall live also. In that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." Taken all together these various sayings teach that man may live a heavenly life on earth. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit abide with all such, and in his own time the Lord, who is himself the way and the truth and the life (ver. 6), will come and receive them unto himself in his Father's house of

many mansions.

The word uovaí, mansions, abodes, conveys the idea of dwelling places of a permanent character. Comp. "the eternal tabernacles" in Luke xvi, 9.

(3) The Passage in John xxi, 22, 23, is peculiar in its careful refraining from any attempt to explain what Jesus meant when he said to Peter in reference to the disciple whom he loved: "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?" Some inferred from these words "that that disciple should not die." But it is written: "Jesus did not say unto him that he should not die; but, If I will that he tarry (uéveiv, remain) till I come, what is that to thee?" This careful record ought to admonish us against hasty inferences from the reported words of Jesus touching his coming, as well as from the dogmatism which oracularly declares that his coming again, in John xiv, 3, cannot mean a coming of Christ to receive into heavenly life the spirit of a dying saint at the moment of its departure from this mortal state.1 For anything that can be proven to the contrary, such a dying is perfectly compatible with remaining until the Lord come, and in spite of all that is said in opposition, this idea has somehow permeated the thought of Christendom, and has found strong and definite expression in the songs of the Church universal. How common to think and to say of any saint that passes from this mortal life, "The Lord has come and taken him away to himself in the heavens."

11. General Apostolic Allusions. Aside from the Apocalypse, there is comparatively but a small portion of the apostolic writings which treats directly of the time and manner of the coming of Christ and his kingdom. In James v, 7, 8; 2 Pet. i, 16; 1 John ii, 28, and 1 Thess. ii, 19; iii, 13; v, 23, we read examples of incidental allusion to the coming (parousia) of the Lord as of a common and well-known expectation of blessed hope. In these passages the word naρovoía, presence, does not necessarily mean a spectacular manifestation visible to fleshly eyes, but conveys the same idea of a spiritual coming and presence which we have already explained. Whensoever and wheresoever the kingdom of God comes with power, the coming and presence of the heavenly King must also be understood, and so far as seeing the kingdom of God and entering into the kingdom (John iii, 3, 5) contemplate being "set before the presence of his glory without blemish in exceeding

1 Commentators like Meyer, who reject every interpretation of John xiv, 3, which leans towards "a merely spiritual import" of the words of Jesus, and who insist that the coming can here mean only the "parousia at the last day," seem to be unaware that their notion of a single spectacular coming, visible at one and the same hour to all men, is as unscriptural as it is unthinkable in the nature of things. The coming of which Jesus speaks is undoubtedly the same as his parousia, or presence; but whether he come to receive a Stephen up to his throne, or to execute his judgment upon his murderers, the parousia is not a spectacle such as the literalistic expositor assumes. The effects of such a judgment may be seen, but not the personal movements of the heavenly Judge. Such literal expositors have too one-sided a notion of Christ's parousia, and make too little of Christ's teaching in John xi, 26: "Whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never die."

joy" (Jude 24), such reception into heavenly glory is an essential portion of the inheritance of the saints in light. Accordingly, any manifestation of the power and glory of Christ involves some certain aspect of his heavenly kingdom.

12. Import of the Word párva. At this point we may appropriately notice the import of the word émipáveia, manifestation, or appearing, in its reference to God and to Christ. In 2 Tim. i, 10, "the appearing of our Saviour Christ Jesus" is his past historical manifestation in the flesh; but in chapter iv, 1, 8, of this same epistle the reference is less clear, although it is entirely compatible with the idea of a continual process, like that of the coming of his kingdom. The language in the first verse is: "I adjure thee in the sight of God and of Christ Jesus who shall judge the living and the dead, both by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word." As the notion of the judgment of Christ ceases to be understood as a spectacular event, or as one that must needs be simultaneous with all the living and the dead of all ages, and as it adjusts itself to the doctrine of the kingdom of Christ as a process of spiritual conquest and dominion, it will become obvious that the appearing of Christ is not an event that occurs once for all, at a definite moment in the course of time. It occurs repeatedly and indeed continuously, as the children of the kingdom "fall asleep" and, like Stephen at his departure from mortal life, "see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God" (Acts vii, 56). In strictest harmony with this conception the apostle speaks, in 2 Tim. iv, 8, of his confident expectation of "the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at that day: and not only to me, but also to all them that have loved his appearing." This appearing of Christ, according to 1 Tim. vi, 14, 15, the heavenly King “shall show forth in its own times." The day of its revelation is not one and the same point of time for every soul that has loved his appearing, but it has its various and innumerable times. So, too, God manifests his word in the gospel message in its own times (Titus i, 3), but the word comes not at the same time to all. In Titus ii, 13, we read of "the blessed hope and appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ"; but nothing in this text or context obliges us to limit the realization of this "blessed hope and the appearing of the great God" to any one period of time for all the redeemed. Each must attain to that blessedness in his own time, and we are not to assume that the epiphany of the great God must be something visible to the eyes of men in the flesh. The writer contemplates rather the spiritual and eternal, and he speaks in verse 11 of the grace of God which "has appeared

(émεpávn), bringing salvation to all men," and in iii, 4, of the like appearance of "the kindness of God our Saviour, and his love toward man." Nothing, therefore, in any one of these texts requires us to understand the appearing of Christ as a physical phenomenon yet to be revealed to mortal men, and to be perceived by all men at one moment of time. The only other passage which contains this word (émpávela) is 2 Thess. ii, 8, which we shall duly notice in connection with the doctrine of that epistle.

13. Import of άποκάλυψις and φανέρωσις. Two other words require a passing notice in this connection because of their occasional use in the same general meaning which we have pointed out in the word ἐπιφάνεια. In 1 Cor. i, 7, Paul speaks of "waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall also confirm you unto the end, unreprovable in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." Here the word revelation (árokáλvpis) is obviously equivalent to manifestation or appearing, and may be understood, as we have explained the appearing of the Lord, of that heavenly revelation of himself which he makes in his own times. The day of Jesus Christ is the time at which he reveals himself and his heavenly glory (comp. John xvii, 24) to his redeemed saints, but as matter of fact this day of glorious revelation cannot be the same moment of time for all. For the New Testament doctrine of immortality and resurrection, as we have already seen, necessarily involves the fact that some saints are glorified with Christ before others are born. We cannot, therefore allow a literalistic exegesis to force the absurd conclusion that "the day of our Lord Jesus Christ" must be one and the same moment of his personal revelation to all generations of men. The same comments will apply to the word as it is employed in 1 Pet. i, 7, 13; iv, 13; 2 Thess. i, 7. The word pavepów is also used to denote any kind of spiritual or heavenly manifestation. In Col. i, 26, the mystery of the ages is said to be "now manifested" to the saints of God; and in Col. iii, 4, it is written: "When Christ, our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with him be manifested in glory." There was a manifestation of Jesus Christ in the flesh, and there is to be a manifestation of the same Christ in glory; but this latter should not be thought of as occurring at one and the same time to all generations of mankind. In Heb. ix, 26, we are told that "now once at the consummation of the ages Christ has been manifested to put away sin"; but in verse 28 it is said that he "shall be seen (oponoεтai) a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for him, unto salvation." Similarly in 1 Peter: "Christ was manifested at the end of the times for your sake" (i, 20); and yet, "when the chief Shepherd shall be manifested (i.e., whensoever to