believe, nor what we preach, but what we are before him who judgeth righteous judgment.

Having thus fully considered what it is to be ready, and having searched our own hearts with the inquiry, Am I ready? let us pass on to consider the rapture, and, as well as we are able, its results. For that "moment," spoken of by the apostle in 1 Cor. xv. 52, must become presently realised by millions of our race. Something unprecedented in the world's history must soon take place, and we shall lose nothing, but possibly make a gain by attempting to realise the result consequent upon the rapture, first to them that are taken, and next to them that are left. Concerning them that are taken but little can be said. The apostle is content with saying, "And so shall we ever be with the Lord." What is expressed in the words "with the Lord," not only does language fail to utter, but the imagination fails to conceive. To be "caught away with them (the raised ones) in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air," and seeing him to be made like him, is altogether beyond human conception. Well might John say, "We know not what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him," and so much as we can grasp of that suffices us to know. Whatever we may fail to conceive of, and there is much of detail that we cannot attempt to touch even in thought, this much is certain, that while surprise will certainly overtake many, regrets there can be none. The battle of life suddenly ended, the cross laid by for a crown, will admit of no regrets; for "Glory, glory dwelleth in Emanuel's land." Regrets there can be none, that is most certain; but this leads necessarily to reflection upon the relative ties and dependents of those who share in the rapture. We have it from the lips of our blessed Lord, "Two men shall be in the field, one shall be taken and the other left." Let us suppose, then, that the one taken will be the landed proprietor or tenant of the field, and that at the homestead there will be a wife and several young children. What, then, shall be the portion of these? Now, Scripture not only joins the man to his wife, and calls them one, but the children, too, are so much part and parcel of ourselves that the man's household becomes identified with the man for good or ill, and hence, we find oft repeated in Scripture, "Thou and thy house." (See Gen. vii. 1; Jer. xxxviii. 17; Acts xi. 14; xvi. 31.) We cannot, therefore, conceive that Infinite Wisdom, who is also Infinite Love, will leave the children exposed to the storm of tribulation which must then immediately ensue, when their natural protector and provider is taken away, or that he being so taken away could be free from care and regret if they were left behind. Under this consideration we infer that the children of tender age, such as are irresponsible for their state Godward, and dependent upon the parents, will share the rapture with him. How the case may be with the wife may depend upon the measure of sympathy or subjection in which she has been to her husband. If an enemy

of the truth or careless about her state Godward, she may find herself bereaved of both husband and children. Again, let us suppose that "the other left" in the field has in his homestead a wife in readiness for her Lord's coming, and together with her little ones has been caught away at the same moment that he missed his friend. He will return to his house to report that some strange thing has happened, when, to his amazement, he finds his home empty and the servants in consternation to know what has become of mistress and the children. And possibly one of the servants, the least esteemed in the homestead, and the most put upon, is gone too. Moreover, we learn from our blessed Lord, that "Two women shall be grinding at the mill," possibly fellow-servants, the one reviling, the other enduring for his name's sake, whose coming she anticipates, the one reckoning on her earthly prospects, the other looking for her Lord from heaven. No wonder that one is taken and the other left, and where will be her reviling then?

"In that night also there shall be two men in one bed," possibly brothers in one family, and fellow Christians too. Ere they fall asleep one may be found saying to the other, "Who knows but the Lord may come before morning! How delightful to wake and find oneself for ever with the Lord!'" To which the other may respond, "Ah, there you are again, riding your favourite hobby; I expect to live and die and be buried many long years before then." What wonder that the one should be taken while the other is left?

In like manner we might extend our thought to the exchange, the market place, the crowded hospital, the lonesome sick room, or the thronged thoroughfare, where two shall be speaking together, walking together, negotiating some more or less important business matter together; when lo, in a moment, one is gone and the other remains alone. Or it may happen when believers are gathered at the table of the Lord, remembering him until he come, and we have often thought it may be the happy experience of some to be overtaken at such a time. But what empty spaces may be seen then! The minister, with one or two of the deacons, and a score or two of the members gone, while the rest are left in blank astonishment to self-examination and inquiry whether, after all, they have known anything savingly, or whether their faith has been fancy only. In other cases possibly the minister and the deacons, with the bulk of the congregation, may be left to see that those two or three among them that held strange pre-millenarian views, and were always talking about the importance of being ready, were, after all, right, while the rest were wrong. Then, truly, "In the divisions of Reuben, there shall be great searchings of heart." (Judges v. 16.) The High Court of Parliament may be at the time assembled, and a lively debate on in the House of Commons, when a "division" shall take place without being called for, and of a kind never before known. Whether the House of Peers or the Bench of Bishops would be invaded, whether the reigning sovereign or any members of the

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royal family or household would share in the visitation the day must declare. But certain it is that thus the seal of divine approbation will be set upon the approved ones in that day without regard for station, caste, or creed, for "They shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts in that day, when I make up my special treasure, and I will value them as a man valueth his own son that serveth him." (Mal. iii. 17.) Let us then be of the number who daily say, "Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory." (Psalm lxxiii. 24.)

But now we must consider the subjects of the "first resurrection " as sharers together with us in the rapture.

But not more important is readiness for the rapture of "those who are alive and remain," than for the departure hence of those who sleep in death, when viewed in the light of the first resurrection. If, "in the place where the tree falleth there it shall lie " in resurrection, and "the dead know not anything," for, "there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither we go," so that change in our state Godward there can be none between death and resurrection, then is it all important to live in readiness, that we may die in readiness, and so share a glorious part in the first resurrection. If this be not so, we fail to understand the earnestness expressed by the apostle (Phil. iii. 8, 11): "I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him; that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection from among the dead." (See Emphatic Diaglott.) Why, if the apostle entertained the thought of growth and development between death and resurrection, was he concerned to finish his course with joy? But life ending here was to him a finished course, and hence his exultant song in departing: "I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." (2 Tim i. 12; iv. 6, 7, 8.)

From all which we see the faith of the apostle transferring his hope from the present moment of suffering and death, to that day when in resurrection he, together with all who love the appearing, should receive the overcomer's crown.

Whereupon we conclude that not more surely will the changed ones be an election from among the righteous living, than that the first resurrection will be an election from among the righteous dead. Hence we read, "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in

the first resurrection," which, to our understanding, reads, "He that hath part in the first resurrection is especially blessed and holy." True it is, that every believer is blessed and holy, in proportion to the spirit of faith that is in him, but faith is a grace of degree, and only that degree which giveth the victory over the world comprises the blessedness and holiness here commended, and constitutes its possessors overcomers. After the same manner are they pronounced specially blessed who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. (See Rev. xix. 9.)

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The Apostle to the Hebrews, in speaking of the rest, or keeping of Sabbath to the people of God, suggests a possibility of coming short of it, and however the rest of faith may here be implied, the rest of millennial glory, the creation's Sabbath, the seventh thousand years of its history, is the rest here spoken of "that remaineth to the people of God." (Heb. iv. 9.) And if these words inspire hope, not less do those teach wholesome fear, where we read, Take heed, brethren, lest; Exhort one another daily, lest; We are made partakers of Christ (that is of his glory) if; Let us therefore fear, lest; Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest." Indeed, the whole tenor of these third and fourth chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews suggests possibility of failure, and gives warning against it. Not of final salvation, but of the prize of our high and holy calling, a part with him in his kingdom and glory. Here also we come to see a fulness of meaning in the words: “If we be dead with him, we shall also live with him; if we suffer, shall also reign with him," and "The dead in Christ shall rise first." Now the dead in Christ are those who have lived in Christ; but do all believers live in Christ? All believers living and dying in the faith of Christ shall rise to live eternally with him, but the object of the present inquiry is that order of rising and living with Christ which will ensure reigning with him. Every queen shares the throne with the king, and their time of crowning is one. So we read the Bride is to share the throne with the Bridegroom when he shall come in his own glory and his Father's. (Rev. iii. 21.) But only if we be dead with him now, shall we live with him then; only if we suffer with him now, shall we reign with him then; "for, if we believe not, he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself." So persuaded were the believers in the early church of this truth, that with a view to reigning with Christ, martyrdom was even coveted and sought, rather than avoided. Not necessarily, however, need overcomers be martyrs of the order described in Heb. xi. 35-38; but those who have carried a cross for Christ, those who have put off the old man with his deeds, have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts, have suffered shame and disrepute for the truth's sake, having bought the truth at great cost, and refused to sell it again even to recover a lost reputation with the world or their brethren. Such as, being cast out for the truth's sake, have found consolation in the words understood by so few: "Your bre

thren that hated you, and that cast you out for my name's sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified; but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed" (Isa. lxvi. 5); for the same thing that has been going on from the beginning, continues still, and shall to the end.

But it may yet be asked by some, Upon what special Scriptures do you rely for a first resurrection? We answer, First, upon the apostle's anxiety already quoted from Phil. iii. 11, noting especially the right reading, "from among the dead." Second, his language to the Thessalonians, 1 Ep. iv. 16; and Third, John's testimony in Rev. xx. 5, 6, than which we can conceive of nothing more definite; and this we must consider part and parcel of the first thing that shall shortly come to pass, seeing that the change of the living and the raising of the dead are to happen simultaneously, in the twinkling of an eye, the briefest point of time that can be expressed-and for participation in either of which readiness is enjoined.

Then Abel, the first to lose his life for righteousness; and Enoch, the seventh from Adam, who walked with God, and was not, for God took him, as a type of all who should on that account become translated that they should not see death; together with all the happy succession of witnesses, down to the saint who latest fell asleep, wake from their long sleep of death, and together with those who are alive and remain, will be caught away to meet the Lord in the air. We will here just hazard the expression of a thought we have entertained for years on this matter, for which we have indeed no express revelation, but which in the very nature of things appears to us not only feasible, but likely; that, whenever the time draws near-say, within a year, two, or three -the Lord may spare his loved ones the pain of dying by detaining them on the earth to partake at length in the rapture of the living and changed saints. Where he has seen an earnest (perhaps a life-long) looking and longing for his appearing, coupled with a hope to escape the last enemy, we think it not improbable that his love toward them may be shown after this order; and surely the thought that such might be, should prove an additional incentive to entertain the lively hope and expectation.

But some will say, Does not Romans viii. 17 say, "If children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ ?" What more than new birth is needed? Yes; but it adds, "if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." And just before it says, "They that are in the flesh cannot please God, but as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God." Observe, too, that all sons are not heirs. Abraham, the father of the faithful," had two sons, the one by a bond maid, the other by a free woman; but he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh, but he of the free woman was by promise; which things are an allegory." In Abram's household Eliezer was heir for a while