the world of men. These are some of the points to which we will now direct our attention.
The Lord Jesus Christ plainly said, "I will come again."[1] In other portions of the Gospels, besides John, the same fact is spoken of with much precision, and the expectation of its fulfilment has been cherished in all ages of the Christian Church; but the way in which this promise is to be accomplished is not so clearly expressed: hence much obscurity has prevailed concerning it. The Lord's words upon the subject are, "Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory."[2] No one who thinks upon the term of this prediction with any exactness, can suppose that by "the sign of the Son of man in heaven," is meant some remarkable appearance in the sky, or that by His coming in the clouds of heaven is signified His descending in the vapours of the earth; and surely His "power" will not be exhibited in the production of disaster, nor His "glory"'
- ↑ John xiv. 3.
- ↑ Matt. xxiv. 30.
to hear His voice, to stand before His judgment-seat. These illusions spring from misinterpretation of Scripture language. Christ, in the New Testament, is said to come whenever His religion breaks out in new glory, or gains new triumphs. He came in the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. He came in the destruction of Jerusalem, by which He subverted the whole ritual law, and, branking the power of the worst enemies of His religion, ensured Him new victories. He came in the Reformation and in Protestantism. He came this day four years ago, when, throngh His religion, 800,000 men were raised from the lowest degradation to the rights and dignity and fellowship of men. Christ's outward appearance is of little moment compared with the higher manifestations of His Spirit."—Address by Dr. Channing, delivered at Lenox, Massachusetts, on August 1st, 1842, the anniversary of Negro Emancipation in the British West Indies.
