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which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth," 28, 29; and it is argued that if all the dead arise in one hour, there cannot be such a separation in time between the classes. Those who constructed or adopted this argument, forgot the context. There are two hours or periods spoken of in the chapter. First, an hour for the gift of spiritual life-second, an hour for the bestowment of life from the grave.-" Verily, Verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live." This is explained in connexion with hearing, and trusting in him; thus passing from death to life-and from condemnation to justification and liberty. "Marvel not at this, (this power of making the soul alive.) for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth."

The premises are now before us. We have first one hour for life to the soul, which began with the ministry of the Lord, and has not yet terminated. It has endured for ages. If the first hour is a long period of nearly two thousand years, why may not the second hour likewise be a long period? We are not yet qualified to measure the first, as its sands are still running out of the glass; but we can measure the second, because we know from divine testimony that the righteous arise when the Lord appears-and the ungodly at the close of the thousand years. It is still evident, even from this context, that the resurrection of life, and the resurrection of condemnation, are as distinct in time, as they are in name and character.

VI. Another objection frequently urged against our view is, the judicial passage in Matt. xxv. 31-46. It is argued from that context, that both classes have risen from the dead, since they are separated as sheep and goats,-on his right hand and on his leftand, finally, one class inherit the kingdom in life eternal, while the other go away into everlasting punishment. It is only necessary for us to quote two verses

"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."

In reply to the objection which is founded upon this connexion, we need only remark, that there is not a word concerning resurrection in the context-no direct statement, and no necessary implication. It is the judgment of the Lord among living nations. The discrimination before his bunal of the inhabitants of the world at the time of his appearing. Not that the precise tribunal form will be observed, or the letter of the language addressed to the two classes-but the document sets forth the principle, and the law by which character

shall be estimated, justice administered, and destiny lock for ever the gates of life and death.

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VII. A third objection to our view of the coming age, is founded upon a class of passages which speak concerning the "last day" and the day of judgment." The same narrowness of calculation, the some deficiency in breadth and elevation of prospect, is manifest in this, as in the previous objections. If the parties who have hitherto been so cramped, will consider that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day, they will enter into a larger and brighter field of contemplation. The day of judgment is not a period of twenty-four hours, but a period commensurate with the magnitude of the interest at stake, and the destinies impending. The entire thousand years will constitute the day of judgment, opening with the judginent of the great King revealed in flaming fire, continued by his saints in the judgment of the isles, and completed by the supreme God in severe splendour with the Books of Conscience and Reason, of Life and Death, of Time and Eternity, of Heaven and Hell, all open before him.

CHAP. VII.

THE ELEMENTS OF A NEW AGE.

The aspects and attributes of power and dominion have been strangely varied. In rude and barbarous ages, we see the empire of material force, or physical strength. In each great state some tremendous savage, animates with his own ferocity, and girds with his own iron, a mass of smaller men- and they sweep away all before them. Finally, one whose dark passions are most concentrated, binds a number of states into a great absolute monarchy, and reigns as a Nimrod of humanity. Afterwards we behold another condition of things;-the reign of mind-the dominion of mental power. There has been such expansion of mind by the necessary development of the human soul in society-by the communion of spirit with spirit in all changing circumstances-that government must henceforth be in some ineasure founded upon reason. The blind adoration, or the blind fear which once drew masses around a person, gives place to regard for the supremacy of law, agreed upon in deliberative assembly. In the room of deciding every quarrel on the crimson battle-field, where dogs and hungry vultures finish the controversy, negotiation and diplomacy are tried, often successfully. It is however still undeniable, that we have not reached a permanent state of things. The strong man has tried, and the wise man has tried, and we are waiting for the pure man. After the reigns of Physical Force, and Intellectual Power, we are expecting the Government of Spiritual Character-the Reign of Holiness and Love. The saints

to take the kingdom. On the whole, the men of unsanctified mind

have not rendered society happier than their iron progenitors of an earlier period. The sons of men have exhibited more refinement, without realizing any deeper enjoyment. Some loathsome moral diseases have been banished from public view, but secret sin and inward misery are wider diffused than ever. When the power, the knowledge, and the holiness, are all combined in the rulers, humanity shall receive proper guidance, and the following lines shall he verified in a deeper sense than the author himself has apprehended.

"For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see,

Saw the vision of the world and all, the wonder that would be;
Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails,
Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales;
Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rained a ghastly dew
From the nation's airy navies grappling in the central blue;
Far along the world-wide whisper of the south wind rushing warm,
With the standards of the peoples plunging thro' the thunder storm
Till the war-drum throbbed no longer, and the battle-flags were furled
In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world.

There the common sense of most, shall hold a fretful realm in awe,
And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapt in universal law."

In our scheme of the future, we find upon earth during the Millennium, three classes. Even when the great purpose of God has increased, and widened into conspicuity and splendour, we still discover gradation and progress.

1st. A glorified people. Pre-eminent in power, beauty, and blessedness, are the glorified people of the Lord, who are clothed with immortality by the first resurrection, or the instantaneous translation, when the Son of God is revealed. They are the High Priests of Renovated Nature, and the imperial powers of new societyjudging angels, and ruling the world.

2nd. A people converted but not glorified. I mean Israel according to the flesh, awakened from the dreary trance of unbelief, and established in his own land. The vail of midnight is to be lifted from the eyes of that marvellous race, and the stony insensible heart entirely taken away. When they look upon Him whom they pierced, a conviction of their long continued guilt, and of his divine glory and mercy, shall run as an electric fire from heart to heart, through all their tribes and families—and amid floods of contrition and wailing, they shall be baptized into a new state. Salem shall be crowned with more than ancient renown, and all people learn more of the character of God from that soil and people, sanctified for ever in the purpose of God.

3. A people neither glorified nor converted, but delivered entirely

from the influence of Satan. The "Lord is to be revealed from heaven in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them who know not God and obey not the gospel." One clause of this passage explains the other, and limits the destruction to those who have had reasonable opportunity and capability of hearing and understanding a system like Christianity. But the millions who occupy the heathen isles, have enjoyed no such opportunity, and possessed no such capability. They were not included in that world" which heard an authoritative proclamation of the gospel-nor have they yet gone through the necessary stages of mental and social cultivation. Placed under the government of the saints, and delivered from the wiles of the enemy, they will find themselves in a school of spiritual advancement, which may prepare them for a higher condition. Thus we find a second class aspiring towards the first, and a third ascending toward the second; while heaven with all its orders of sinless being, indulges in solemn transport over the prospects of the earth.

That the first class shall reign during the millennium, has been proved. Many have doubts concerning the existence of the second and third, during the same period. In view of this our next chapter will attempt to render the scheme morally certain, by biblical evidence. G. GREENWELL.

CHRIST AND HIS CHURCH.

[CONTINUED FROM PAGE 76.]

"Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular."

WE propose now to contemplate the Saviour and his bride under another figure; but which is so intertwined with the last as to be almost inseparable from it. For as the husband is the head of the wife, so is Christ the head of his church," &c.; and,

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bers of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones." Truly "this is a great mystery." To solve it is not in the power of the writer; but perhaps we may be able to draw from it a few of those practical and consoling ideas, which it seems the Holy Spirit designed to suggest in applying the simile to the church of Christ.

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It will not be necessary to dwell upon the formation of the body, since it must be that the same agency and means by which persons become members of his mystical sister spouse, renders them at once members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones." "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body," &c. And here we may just remark, how erroneously this verse, (1 Cor. xii. 13,) has been applied to the direct baptism with the Holy Ghost. If the grammatical construction be strictly attended to, a difference must be perceived between being baptized with the Spirit, (in which case the

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Lord Jesus is the baptizer,) and being baptized, as Paul here says, "by the Spirit." The by marks the agent, not the medium. When the disciples on the day of Pentecost were overwhelmed, or baptized, with the Holy Ghost, it was the medium; and the Messiah, who had been exalted to distribute gifts to men, was the agent; for it is said of him, (John i. 33,) “ the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost:" whereas, in this passage, (1 Cor. xii. 13,) the Spirit is manifestly the impelling power, or agency, and with water are the believers of the one faith" baptized into the one body," being thus through their union with the Head, put into a capacity for drinking into one spirit of love, holiness, peace, and joy, and henceforth to live in the enjoyment of the "one hope." The command goes forth, and by the Word of God, the Spirit's instrument, "which is sharper than any two-edged sword," and therefore called "the sword of the Spirit," is each member formed, then united to the body; formed too," out of the dust of the earth," for children of death are we all, sinful dust and ashes; but by union into this body a dignity is imparted to us, a glory and a beauty, flowing not from anything in ourselves, (for we are no better than the dust from which architect does take us.) but from being the workmanship of the Most High, and from him having united us to such a glorious Head, even Him to whom "all power is given in heaven and in earth," and who of God is made unto us "wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption."

There is a peculiar and inexpressible beauty in the period chosen in the history of his natural body, to illustrate the reception of members into his mystical body. It was not the time of his Anointing, although in that anointing of the Head was each member anointed, since the oil of gladness poured upon Him descends even to the skirts of his garments, and when by being united to his body, beneath those garments a sinner takes refuge, immediately he becomes a partaker of the anointing. Those who would (and who do profess to) unite a member to the body by pouring water upon him, seem to choose this as the fit period. But, no! God is wiser than men. United to him at this period, they would remain under the law; for while Jesus lived he was under the law; and though he yielded a perfect obedience, yet, since he stood in the place of the sinner, at last it worked out its condemnation upon him, even the accursed death "on the tree." Being dead, and the corruptible life of the flesh, (i.e. the blood,) expelled, the law in reality had ceased to have dominion over him; still by the hand of another in obedience to that law, he was removed out of sight-buried; then the law could go no further. Here, then, is the moment chosen for union.-" Baptized into his death;" "buried with him by baptism into death"and this burial an act of our own; but, as in the former case, by the

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