shall come," ""He shall come from thence," "He shall come to judge," "He shall come to judge the quick and the dead." I. "He shall come." But in what sense? If this is to be reduced to a mere figure of speech-if we are to understand by it only some stupendous exercise of judicial power issuing from the Invisible, which is to fix somehow the destinies of men-the natural meaning of this article is entirely subverted, and the New Testament itself will require to be interpreted in a non-natural and intolerable sense. Let us see, then, how the second coming of Christ is held forth in the New Testament. Passing by a multitude of passages, in which both the assurance that He will come and the purposes of His coming are expressed in every variety of form, let us, for the sake of brevity and precision, fix upon one which is as explicit and pregnant as it is beautiful and spirit-stirring. The historian of the Acts, having related what passed between our Risen Lord and His disciples at His last interview with them on earth, thus proceeds with his narrative :-" And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly towards heaven as He went up, behold two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." (Acts i. 9-11.) The personal identity of the Returning with the Departing One is here expressed with marked emphasis "this same," or "this very Jesus," shall come. And, as if to fasten additional attention upon this feature of the case, the words are, "This very Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven," who was actually standing amongst you and speaking with you when He was parted from you and sublimely rose up from the midst of you, a cloud of glory at length receiving Him out of your sight-"this very Jesus," and no other, "shall come." His physical frame, on which new laws were stamped at His resurrection, may haply be still more sublimated and etherealised as He rises upwards, "far above all heavens," to attemper it to the celestial element which it is henceforth to breathe; but still, they are emphatically assured, "this very Jesus, who was taken up from them into heaven," and no other, "shall come." That, beyond all doubt, fixes the literal, corporeal, and local descent of "the Man Christ Jesus," to be the thing meant by the two shining ones, when they came to comfort the sorrowing disciples as they gazed wistfully and with rapt amazement upwards after their departed Master. Nor could they understand anything else by this heavenly assurance than that they were to get their own beloved Lord back to them again in His own proper Person. In fact, the expression "into heaven" is thrice repeated in one verse, as if to put it beyond doubt that the return • Οὗτος ὁ Ἰησοῦς. would be as corporeal and as local as the departure before their own eyes had been. But further, He "shall so come," and "in the like manner, as ye have seen Him go-not only as personally, but as visibly and as gloriously. Accordingly we read, "Behold he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced Him." Constantly we read of His glorious "appearing," and of the day of "the revelation of Jesus Christ." Believers are said to look for Him; and when it is said, "He shall come the second time," the equal visibility, as well as personality of His second as of His first coming is beyond doubt implied. In the light of these passages, it is hardly necessary to say a word on the next point in this article: II. "From thence." But one passage, peculiarly ex"The Lord Himselft shall plicit, may be quoted. descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the "He shall come in His " air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord." scent from heaven to earth of Him who now sitteth A literal and local-a corporeal and visible-deon the right hand of God is beyond all doubt what the general tenor of the New Testament teaches us to expect, and what is meant in this article of the Creed. On the glory of that second appearing, as contrasted with the humility of His first coming, the New Testament is equally explicit. It will be, it seems, a threefold glory. own glory, and in His Father's glory, and in the glory of the holy angels."‡ "His own glory' means not only that Personal "glory and honour" torious Redeemer, and now sitteth at the right hand with which He has been "crowned," as the vicof the Majesty on high, but the glory, no doubt, of that august office which He comes to execute as Judge. "The glory of His Father" is probably something by which it will appear to all that He brings with Him a commission from the Eternal Father; who hath seen Him coming to judge hath seen the Father in His Person coming for that end, and thus that in His person "God is Judge Himself.” “The glory of the holy angels" can be no other than the glory of being attended by “thousand thousand "of them "ministering unto Him, ten thousand times ten thousand standing before Him," in all their radiance, to do him honour, arrange the stately accompaniments of the great scene to be enacted, and execute with alacrity and delight His every com mand. that He To that question no categorical answer can be given, because it depends on the clearness and strength of the conviction which men are thought capable of reaching, without Revelation, that they are under a moral and retributive system. It is only as the natural conscience is quickened into life-only as it is educated into intelligent perceptions of right and wrong-only as it is made to feel that there is a moral government of the world-that any definite apprehension of a general judgment can be attained. At the same time there is in the breasts of all men, III. "He shall come to judge." This final Judgment must be carefully distinguished from all previous exercises of Divine judicial authority. The Bible is full of such. God is said to "judge the righteous" when at any time He interposes providentially for their deliverance from oppression or evil; and He is said to "judge" the wicked when He inflicts upon them righteous vengeance, reducing them to their proper level, or bringing them as a party to nothing.† Even the exercise of sovereign authority and rule in general is in Scripture expressed by the term judg-independently of Revelation, such a preparation for ment, because much of it consists in judging between right and wrong-vindicating the one, and putting down the other. Thus Samuel, the last of the "judges" of Israel before the regal office was instituted, is said to have "judged Israel all the days of his life." And hence the entire reign of Messiah, "the Prince of Peace," is held forth, especially with reference to its resistless triumphs, and its universality in the latter day, as a glorious and continued exercise of righteous judgment in the earth. "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely, and this is the name whereby He shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness." "He shall judge thy people with righteousness and thy poor with judgment. The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills by righteousness. He shall judge the poor of the people, He shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor." "Say among the heathen, that the Lord reigneth; the world also shall be established that it cannot be moved; He shall judge the people righteously." § receiving right views on this subject, that no sooner do the preachers of the everlasting Gospel proclaim to the heathen, as a message from heaven, that there is to be a general judgment, than the unsophisticated and earnest among them, however rude, find an echo to it within their own breasts, and are ready to welcome it as a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. Thus far does nature itself testify to a coming judgment. But it is Revelation alone which converts dim apprehensions and feeble impressions into definite convictions, felt certainties, rooted principles of action. Revelation alone assures us that the moral administration under which mankind are now placed is at a definite period to be wound up by a grand scene of righteous and universal judgment; and Revelation alone discloses to us the Agent by whom this judgment is to be administered, the august circumstances with which it will be invested, the principles on which it will be conducted, and its awful issues. The statements of the Old Testament on this subject, though less definite than those of the New, are entirely in harmony with them. Hear but two of the weighty utterances of the Preacher:-" Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee In what respect now does “judgment," as these in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of passages speak of it, differ from that Judgment which thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes: but know Christ is to execute at His Second Coming? The that for all these things God will bring thee into essential principle of judicial authority is found in judgment." "Let us hear the conclusion of the both cases. It is this, in fact, and this alone, which whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandjustifies the use of the same terms in describing both. ments; for this is the whole [duty] of man. For God But they differ, notwithstanding, as widely as pos- will bring every work into judgment, with every sible. All previous exercises of Divine judgment, secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be even the most stupendous, are of a TEMPORAL nature: evil." But it is in the New Testament that we the Last Judgment will be ETERNAL. All previous expect to find the most explicit and circumstantial exercises of judical authority are of a partial nature: information on this subject; nor do we fail to find the Last Judgment will be complete and conclusive. there all that we could reasonably desire, as the folIn other words, no previous judgment will have re-lowing summary of its teaching will sufficiently show. spect to the whole of every case, and so is not, and cannot be, all the judgment which the subjects of it have to expect; whereas this Judgment, embracing the secrets of the heart, and deciding upon all that men are and have done in the body, is necessarily final, irreversible, and eternal. What, it may be asked in the first place, is the amount of nature's testimony to a future judgment? * Deut. xxxii. 36. Psalm vii. 11; lxxvi. 9. + Gen. xv. 14. Acts vii. 7. Psalm ix. 16. 1 Sam. vii. 15. Jer. xxiii. 5, 6. Psalm 1xxii. 2-4; xcvi. 10. 1. The judgment will take place at a definite, though unrevealed period of time. "He hath appointed a day" (said Paul to the Athenians on Mars' Hill) "in the which † He will judge the world." This is emphatically termed "the day of judgment," once and again, by our Lord himself, and by the Apostles Peter and John. It is called "the great day" because of the unparalleled greatness of its transactions; also “the Eccl. xi. 9; xii. 13, 14. † Acts xvii. 31; έστησεν ἡμέραν ἐν ᾗ Matt. x. 15; xi. 22, 24; xii. 36. 2 Peter ii. 9. 1 John ii. 17. day" and "that day," as being the day of all days.* In a word, it is called "the day of the Lord," "the day of the Lord Jesus," because then for the first time will the Lord Jesus assume His most august functions, and for the first time be recognised by the whole world in His true character. By a "day" of judgment we are not, of course, to understand a day of just twenty-four hours. Manifestly, it is not the duration of the judgment which is intended by the word "day," according to our standard or any other. It is just a definite period for a definite action-even as this present period of the Gospel, from the day it was first proclaimed until it shall be no more needed, is called "the accepted time, the day of salvation." For aught we know, the whole process of judgment may be a very short one— it might even be conceived to be instantaneous-but it may also be a protracted process. Yet on either supposition the word "day" is equally suited to convey what alone we understand to be meant by it in this connection. But this latitude of meaning must not be allowed to cover too much. We make this remark with reference to one of the theories by which some esteemed writers try to reconcile the personal reign of Christ on carth after His Second Advent, including the dispensing of salvation to the millennial nations, with the Scripture views of the day of judgment. Availing themselves of the Apostle's statement, that "a thousand years are with the Lord as one day," they think that "the day' of judgment will extend over the entire millennium, and salvation among the millennial nations be going on at the same time. But this seems to us to be totally inconsistent with any proper sense of the word "day" as applied to the judgment. Though the duration of the judgment is certainly not denoted by that word, the definiteness of the purpose to which it will be devoted undoubtedly is. As "the day of salvation" means that salvation is the great and characteristic work of this Gospel day, so "the day of judgment" must be understood to imply that the great and characteristic work of that day will be judgment. And as our Lord said of His first coming, "I came not to judge the world, but to save the world," §-which surely means that the time for the one was not that of the other, and that both could not go on simultaneously together, so may it with equal propriety be said of His . second coming: He will not come to save the world, but to judge the world. In short, according to the uniform teaching of Scripture, the one of these is preparatory to the other, since it furnishes the materials for it. While salvation lasts, judgment cannot come; but as soon as judgment comes, salvation, in the nature of the case, ceases. Our object in these remarks, however, is not controversial. We wish merely to fix definitely the sense in which the word 'day" is, and is not, applied to the judgment, and *Jude 6. 1 Cor. iii. 13. 2 Tim. i. 12. to hold forth the catholic verity which by this familiar phraseology of the Bible is, as we believe, denoted. The heart cannot easily rest, we think, in such a view of the day of judgment as complicates it with a protracted series of events totally diverse in their nature-events which awaken an interest of their own, very different from those of the judgment. It is when we regard judgment as the one object of "that day," interposed between the past and the future of the human race, adjudicating on their past, and determining their future-it is thus, we think, that it harmonises best with all the "fearful lookings for of judgment and fiery indignation" which haunt the ungodly, and all the joyous anticipations of those who love Christ's appearing. 2. The Judge will be Jesus Christ. On this point quite peculiar to Revelation-the New Testament is most explicit and abundant. Hear it from the Judge's own lips. "The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son, that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father. For as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself, and hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of man." "The Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father, and with the angels; and then shall He reward every man according to his works." "When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him; then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory. And before Him shall be gathered all nations, and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King answer and say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom," &c. "Then shall He say also to them on the left hand, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire," &c. Hear now the Apostles. "He commanded us" (said Peter to Cornelius and his company) "to preach unto the people, and to testify that it was He which was ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead." "He hath appointed a day" (says Paul, in a passage already quoted) "in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained." "God" (says the same apostle) "shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my Gospel." "I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom."† Finally, among the last words of the last book of the Bible are these words of the Lord Himself: "And behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.”‡ What an august and beautiful arrangement is * John v. 22, 23, 26, 27. Matt. xvi. 27. Matt. xxv. +1 Thess. v. 2. 2 Peter iii. 9. 1 Cor. v. 5. 2 Cor. i. 14. 31-34, 44. t2 Cor. vi. 2. † Acts x. 42; xvii. 31 Rom. ii. 16. 2 Tim. iv. L Rev. xxii. 12. John xii. 47. Good Words, Sept. 1, 1967.1 THE CREED OF CHRISTENDOM. this! We are not left to conjecture the purpose of But one essential condition of the possibility of we were ever estranged. Even so, on the throne, 4. The judgment will embrace the whole human All the reasons for a general judgment, whether drawn from Nature or from Revelation, imply this; insomuch that as soon as we begin to introduce exceptions of this class and that, the reasons for such a judgment at all appear questionable. But if the Bible is to settle the question, all doubt is at an end; for are abundant. When Paul was announcing to the its statements on this subject are as explicit as they Athenians this coming judgment, he seems to have laboured to exclude all idea of exception, heaping up in every clause of his statement the language of strict universality. "And the times of this [heathen] ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousmen everywhere to repent: Because He hath appointed ness by that Man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised him from the dead." The same strict universality is held forth by him in his Epistles whenever he touches upon this subject. Thus, to the To them who by patient continuance Romans: "Who will render to every man according to his works. unto them who obey unrighteousness, indignation in well doing seek for glory," &c., "eternal life: But and wrath upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first and also of the Gentile, for there is no respect of persons with God. For as many as have sinned without law" (or without a written revelation) "shall also perish without law; and as many as have sinned in the law" (under a written revelation) "shall be judged by the law. . . in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel." The whole human family are here classed under two grand divisions-those within To the Corinthians he and those without the pale of Divine Revelation; and the judgment of all who belong to either class is emphatically announced. says: "For we must all appear before the judgmentseat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." Finally, to the Hebrews: "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." Now, since all without exception die, so, by the same Divine appointment, are all without exception to be judged. But the human race are ranged, with reference to the judgment, under two other great divisions-the living and the dead. Three or four times, in speaking on the judgment, we have that remarkable expression which has become to all Christendom a * Rom. ii. 6-9 11 12. 2 Cor. v. 10, 11. Heb. ix. 27. household word—“the quick and the dead." Thus Peter to Cornelius: "And He commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is He which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead;" language which would seem to imply that this very phrase came from the lips of the Risen Saviour Himself, and was thenceforth caught up and repeated by his Apostles. Accordingly, in his first Epistle, we have it again : “They (Gentiles) think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you; who shall give account to Him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead." And so Paul to Timothy: "I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom." * conclude from this, in the one case that the living only will be judged, nor only the dead in the other case. Scripture must in all such cases be compared with Scripture; just as the whole of any writer's statements on one subject are to be compared, if we would not infer from his language what he never intended, and perhaps the very reverse of what he meant to convey. Keeping this general remark in view, let the following passages speak for themselves. "Who shall judge the quick and the dead, at His appearing and His kingdom;" "Who is ready to judge the quick and the dead." So much for the presence of living and dead at the one judgment-seat of Christ Then, as to the presence of righteous and wicked at the same tribunal, the following passages ought surely to suffice." Whosoever shall Thus does the Apostles' Creed, when it says confess me before men, him will I also confess before finally in our article IV. "He shall come to judge the quick and the dead," only employ the identical and familiar words of the New Testament. But here arises a question, to which a moment's attention is necessary. Are we to understand by such language that "the quick" are to be judged separately altogether from "the dead -the one, understood to mean the righteous only, at the coming of the Lord; and the other a thousand years thereafter, and understood to embrace the wicked only? Never, surely, could such a question have arisen, but for the difficulty of otherwise reconciling certain undeniable truths with what is thought to be the only scriptural view of Christ's Second Coming. With that view we desire, in this paper, as far as possible not to meddle. Our object is rather to illustrate the great catholic verities of the Christian faith which are common to all Christians. We shall therefore simply quote one or two passages first, which seem to us to set the question of any such division of the judgment at rest; and then take up in detail the two longest and most circumstantial accounts of the judgment of the living and of the dead in the New Testament. One general remark, however, must here be made As the Bible does not arrange Divine truth in propositions, embracing every feature of any truth, we are not to wonder that in most places only those features of a truth are brought out which the occasion called for; and we shall fall into great error on many points, if we conclude from the absence of any one feature of a truth in certain places that that feature does not belong to it Sometimes, for example, the case of the hearers of the Gospel is alone referred to, in speaking of the judgment, because with them alone the writer or speaker was dealing at the moment; but we are not from this to conclude that they only will stand before the judgment-seat of Christ. Sometimes only the living are spoken of, and sometimes the dead only; but neither are we to * Acts x. 42. 1 Peter iv. 5. 2 Tim. iv. 1. my Father which is in heaven But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven"- -or (as this last act of the judgment is more fully expressed in Mark), "of him shall the Son of man be ashamed when He cometh in the glory of His Father with the holy angels." "Behold I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be." "The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend and them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth in the kingdom of ther Father." "The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the grave shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the re surrection of life, and they that have done evil unt the resurrection of damnation." The simultaneous resurrection of all the dead is here expressed as clearly as language could do it; but there is another thing quite as unequivocally expressed herc, and of even more importance to our purpose-the judgment of righteous and wicked together, at one and the same tribunal, and as the immediate and fitting sequel of their resurrection If this is not clearly the import of our Lord's words, how can we be certain of the meaning of anything that He says, or even of any language whatever? The judgment of the one class may, indeed, take precedence of that of the other; we learn, in fact, that the righteous will-as we might have presumed-be judged first But this will be merely such a priority as takes place during the sitting of one assize among men, when different cases require to be tried separately. One more passage on this point must suffice: "It is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you, and to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed” (literally, "at the revelation of the Lord Jesus") " from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking |