undeniable that the resurrection of Christ was a transaction perfectly distinct from the resurrection of the saints at the second advent, and separated from it by a considerable interval of time. With equal reason, the language of Paul requires us to distinguish between the resurrection of the second advent and the final resurrection; and to place the long interval of the mediatorial reign between them. We will not dwell on this point, as we have already discussed it at some length. (See the article on The Millennium,' p. 334.) We think it safe to say that Paul at least lisps' something about two res urrections and when we consider that he also foresaw and predicted the times of the Gentiles,' (Rom. 11: 25,) we are constrained to believe that, in his own mind, he placed the two resurrections in an order and relation somewhat similar to that described in the 20th of Revelations.

Here let it be noticed that the two representations we have examined, (Matt. 24 & 25, and 1 Cor. 15,) are the only instances in which any of the New Testament writers (excepting, of course, the revelator,) undertake to give a complete prophetical detail of the resurrection and judgment. All the evidence, therefore, in the New Testament, that bears on the point, confirms Revelations 20th.

3. Several of the prophets describe two judgments. (1) In the 12th chapter of Daniel, we have an account of a resurrection of many,' (not of all mankind,) which was to take place at the time of the great tribulationnot continuously through many ages. According to Mr. Ballou's own principles of interpretation, this resurrection was to be finished within three and a half literal years from the period of the destruction of Jerusalem. See ver. 7. It should be observed that Daniel's language plainly characterizes this as distinctively a Jewish resurrection. At that time, thy people shall be delivered,' &c. Ver. 1. In two previous instances (Dan. 2: 44, & 7: 26) he describes another judgment, which comes after the division of the Roman Empire, and which manifestly pertains to all nations. (2) Joel, in the latter part of his second chapter cursorily describes the judgment of the second advent and the deliverance of the elect.' In the third chapter, he predicts specifically the gathering of all nations and the final judgment, after the times of the Gentiles.' (3) Zachariah, in his 13th chapter, and the beginning of the 14th, predicts the events of Christ's ministry and the apostolic age, terminating in the first resurrection and judgment, at the destruction of Jerusalem. Then he goes on to describe a subsequent war with the Gentiles, terminating in another judgment; after which the Lord shall be king over all the earth.' Ver. 3-9.

We trust the foregoing suggestions will be sufficient to convince those who fairly masticate and digest them, that the doctrine of the 20th chapter of Revelations is in full harmony with the uniform representations' of the Old and New Testaments.

fruits; afterward [epeita] they that are Christ's, at his coming; then [eita] the end.'The word cometh is interpolated in the translation. That perhaps contributes to raise a false distinction between the third item and the other two. It is clear from the above examples, and from all the circumstances of the case, that eita has the same force as epeita, and marks off the end' from the resurrection at Christ's coming, exactly as epcitn marks off the latter from Christ's resurrection. Prof. Stuart has endorsed this view, in his late Commentary on the Apocalypse; and he is deep enough in Greek to be good authority in such a matter.

$55. THE CONNECTION OF REGENERATION WITH THE RESURRECTION.

To those who are familiar with our writings, it will be unnecessary for us to prove that the New Testament constantly ascribes regeneration to the power of Christ's resurrection. If any need proof on this point, they may be referred to Rom. 6: 5-10, 2 Cor. 5: 14-17, Eph. 1: 19, 20, Col. 2: 12, 13. From these and many other passages it is evident that regeneration is, prop erly speaking, the resurrection of the spirit, and is effected by the same power that finally raises the body to immortal glory. In the primitive church the resurrection of the spirit was the antecedent condition of the complete resur rection at the coming of the Lord. After his own resurrection, and after the commencement of the operation of the resurrection-power on the church, Christ delayed his personal advent forty years, manifestly because, in right order, the spirit should first be quickened, and afterward the body and the resurrection-power could best take effect on the spirit through the truth, in the absence of Christ, while its complete effect on the body required his sonal presence. Thus the resurrection at the second advent was 'but the completed issue' of the spiritual quickening which preceded it during the apostolic age.

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Assuming then that a ministration of regeneration is the inseparable antecedent of a resurrection, it is obvious that, in order to find the points on the chart of time where resurrections have occurred or shall occur, we have only to ascertain where there has been or is to be a ministration of regeneration. going before. Wherever we see the fig tree of spiritual life budding, we may be sure that the summer of the resurrection is near. With this rule for our guidance, we may safely say at once that there was no resurrection before the coming of Christ. Regeneration, as a doctrine, or as a fact, was not devel oped in the times of the Old Testament. This we have fully shown in the article on the Second Birth, p. 223. The simple truth that regeneration is effected by the power of Christ's resurrection, is sufficient to preclude the idea that any were ever born of God till Christ arose from the dead, unless we commit the absurdity of supposing that an effect may precede its cause. there was no regeneration under the first covenant, so, according to our rule, there was no resurrection.

During the apostolic age the doctrine of regeneration was developed, and men were born of God. Accordingly the first resurrection occurred at the destruction of Jerusalem. So far we advance, in the history of the world with reference to regeneration and the resurrection, under the safe guidance of the Bible.

We are now to try the question whether there has been any resurrection since the destruction of Jerusalem, by inquiring whether there has been a ministration of regeneration since that event. In this inquiry, from the nature of the case we cannot appeal to the Bible for direct evidence, unless it be to its prophecies; and these, though we find them coincident with our

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CONNECTION OF REGENERATION WITH THE RESURRECTION.

view of the subject, may be thought too doubtful to be relied on as primary proof. Our only course is to compare the doctrine and history of Christian experience' in the Gentile church, as recorded by that church itself, with the Bible definition of the second birth. We take for granted that the doctrines of the present leading churches of Christendom, at least on the subject of spiritual experience, are, in substance, the doctrines which have been taught and believed in the Gentile church as a whole since the apostolic age. What then is the popular view of the subject of the second birth? We answer, 1, Regeneration is thought to be nothing more than such a partial change from irreligion to the fear of the Lord as was experienced by pious Jews in all ages before the coming of Christ. This betrays the fact that regeneration, in its essential, Bible character, as a spiritual quickening, effected by the resurrection of Christ, and of course peculiar to the Christian, in distinction from the Jewish dispensation, is not, and has not been recognized in the creed of Gentile Christendom. 2. It is taught and be lieved in the leading churches, that regeneration is consistent with much and even continual sin. But the Bible definition of the second birth is this: 'He that is born of God DOTH NOT COMMIT SIN; for his seed remaineth in him: and HE CANNOT SIN, because he is born of God.' Thus it is evident that the regeneration of the apostolic age, is not the regeneration of Gentile Christendom. This second feature of the popular doctrine of regeneration, necessarily attends the first. If regeneration was experienced in the times of the Old Testament, then it must be consistent with sin; for all the Old Testament saints sinned. But on the other hand, if regeneration is, as the Bible affirms, a sin-eradicating operation, then the history of its development in the past ages of the world is confined to the times subsequent to the res urrection of Christ. To those who adopt the Bible view of regeneration, it will be evident that the Gentile church, so far as doctrine is concerned, has not been conversant with the real second birth, but only with an inferior kind of conversion, which belonged to Judaism. And as experience follows believing the truth, and cannot go beyond the truth received, it will also be evident that the experience which has gone by the name of regeneration in the Gentile churches, has not been the Christian second birth, but only an inferior, Jewish, spiritual change.

It follows then, according to our rule, that there has been no resurrection since the destruction of Jerusalem. The grain has not been ripened. There fore there has been no harvest. If it can he proved that since the apstolic age there has been a continuous ministration of regeneration in Christendom, we will accept the doctrine of Bush and Ballou, that there has been a continuous resurrection. But all the evidence that is accessible to us, leads us to the conclusion that Bible-regeneration ceased at the end of the apostolic age, and of course that there was the end of the first resurrection.

The final inquiry is, When may the second resurrection be expected? If we may legitimately reason from the past harvest to the future, our answer must be,-The second resurrection will take place within the lifetime of a generation from the period of the second ministration of true Christian regeneration.

In our view, the re-development of the gospel of salvation from all

sin by the resurrection of Christ, is the recommencement of the process which in the apostolic age ended in the second advent and the first resurrection. If this is true, we are now in the beginning of the end.'

$56. THE SECOND ADVENT TO THE SOUL.

IT has been held by some that the second coming of Christ is so entirely a spiritual transaction that it belongs altogether to the sphere of internal experience, and takes place in each individual when old things pass away and all things become new.' This is doubtless a false theory; for nothing is more certain than that Christ came personally and visibly to the expectant church at the close of the Jewish dispensation; and it was this coming, and not any manifestation of Christ in private experience, which was constantly held up to the hopes of believers by the apostles and New Testament writers. Nevertheless, there is a moiety of truth in this false theory. There is a second coming of Christ to the soul, distinct from his coming to judgment, as we will proceed to show, from the testimony of the Bible.

Christ said to his disciples, on the eve of his departure from them,- -'I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you. John 14: 18. Here is a plain promise of a second coming. But did Christ, in this promise, allude to the second coming which was to be the great sequel of the end of Judaism? Surely not; for we have a subsequent explanation which clearly determines that the second coming here promised was to be a matter of individual internal experience-a coming of Christ, not in visible person, but by the Holy Ghost. He goes on to say-Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father; and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. [Here the promise of coming to them is repeated in another form. Judas saith unto him, (not Iscariot,) Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me he will keep my words; and my Father will love him; and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.' Ver. 19-23.. If the reader will turn to his Bible, he will perceive that this passage is immediately connected and evidently identified with promises of the Holy Ghost going before and after it; (see verses 16, 17, and 26;) and the language of it, as well as its context, indicates that Christ was not speaking of his ultimate personal coming, after a period of forty years, but of a spiritual manifestation which was much nearer-a coming, not of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven with his holy angels,' but of the Father and the Son in the Holy Ghost, to the hearts of believers.

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On turning to the epistles, we find language corresponding to this promise of a spiritual advent, and testifying that it had already taken place in the ex perience of the saints. The following are examples of such language:Paul, and Sylvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ.' 1 Thess. 1: 1. (See also 2 Thess. 1: 1.)-Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.' 1 John 1: 3. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father.' 1 John 2: 24. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.' 2 John 9. The exact correspondence of this last passage with Christ's promise, is worthy of notice. We will place them side by side:

JOHN 14: 23.

"If any man love me he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him."

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2 JOHN 9.

"He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son."

It is clear, then, that between Christ's personal ministry and his second coming to judgment, there was a spiritual manifestation of him to the souls of believers which may properly be called his second appearing.' This manifestation was in fact the essential act of salvation-a transaction which completed the reconciliation of believers with the Father and the Son. By this manifestation they became partakers of the divine nature, and thenceforth dwelt in God, and God in them. It was by this that they received the 'spirit of the Son into their hearts, crying, Abba, Father.' Gal. 4: 6. In a word, the second appearing of Christ was the SECOND BIRTH.

We ought, therefore, to recognize three, instead of two appearings of Christ. He came, first, in the likeness of sinful flesh, to the visible world; secondly, in the Holy Ghost, to the souls of the saints; thirdly, in his glorified body, to that part of the spiritual world which, at the end of the Jewish dispensation, was ready for judgment. The second of these advents, though it has been altogether eclipsed in the minds of men by the other two, and has hardly been recognized as a distinct advent, was, nevertheless, in many respects the most important of the three. So far as the saints were concerned, it was the advent by which 'old things passed away and all things became new.' It made them new creatures,' and introduced them to a new heavens and a new earth.' At the first advent, they communed with Christ externally, and saw his works. The third advent introduced their bodies to the inner mansion of his glorious personal presence. But the second advent ushered their Souls into the holy of holies, and gave them everlasting spiritual fellowship with the Father and the Son. The proportions between the three may be stated thus: As the soul is to the natural body, so was the second advent to the first; and as the soul is to the glorified body, so was the second advent

to the third.

If we prefer, however, to think and speak only of two comings, the first and second, then we ought to include in the second, the spiritual advent under consideration. In fact, the coming, in the Holy Ghost, to the souls