dew." Is. xxxiii. 26-23. Now this strong language refers to his planting his people in Canaan and driving out their enemies.

:

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David, speaking of his deliverance from his enemies, uses the following strong and highly figurative language. "In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God; he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears. Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down and darkness was under his feet. And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly; yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind. made darkness his secret place: his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail-stones and coals of fire. The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail-stones and coals of fire. Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them." Ps. xviii. 614. Isaiah says. "The burden against Egypt. Behold the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt; and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it." Is. xix. i. Now if God could be said to come on a swift cloud to destroy Egypt, why might not the Saviour be said to come in the clouds, and on the clouds? This is poetic imagery, and is not to be understood

literally. It will avail nothing to say, at the coming of Christ the sun was to be darkened, the moon not to give her light, and the stars fall; for the same imagery is used in the Old Testament in speaking of the destruction of cities and nations. Thus Isaiah speaks of the destruction of Babylon. "Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath, and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven, and the constellations thereof, shall not give their light; the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger." Is. xiii. 9 – 13.

He uses the same bold figures in speaking of the destruction of Idumea. "And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear, shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit, shall be taken in the snare; for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake. The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage, and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it, and

it shall fall, and not rise again. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited. Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign_in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously." Is. xxiv. 18-23. Hence the difficulty is entirely removed. Christ could come, if there were no personal appearance. He could come on the clouds, for so God came against Egypt.

Our views will be confirmed by considering the different expressions used to set forth his coming. One is, "They shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory." Another, that he "shall come in the glory of his Father." And another, “that he shall come in his kingdom." Now, when these expressions are taken together, they present no difficulty. To come in the glory of his Father and in his kingdom, is the same as to come in the clouds. The expressions are synonymous. Well; to come in the glory of his Father was to come in his power and authority, and for the fulfilment of his promises and threatenings. This was coming in power and great glory; for what power and glory were displayed when, by the interposition of Christ, his disciples were redeemed from persecution and oppression, and his enemies destroyed, by one of the most awful judgments which ever fell upon any people.

Then he came in his kingdom; that is, he set up his kingdom; he subdued the enemies that had sought to overthrow it, and he caused his kingdom to flourish and spread. Hence, what Luke in one place expresses by the phrase, "They shall see the Son of man coming in a cloud, with power and great glory," he expresses thus in another: "So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand." His coming, therefore, was not personal, but in the power of divine authority, and the principles of his kingdom; it was a coming to execute punishment upon his foes.

If any are disposed to cavil at the expression, "They shall see the Sou of man coming in the clouds," we can readily silence them by quoting our text. "For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom." Here it is said, they should see him coming in his kingdom. But who should thus see him? Some of those who were personal attendants on the ministry of Christ. But did they see him come personally? Did they see any thing more than a coming in judgment and blessing?

The language of Mark will aid us here. In one verse he says, 66 come in the glory of his Father, with his angels," and in the next, "There be some standing here which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power;" so that Christ's coming in the glory of his Father is the same as the coming of

the kingdom of God. Well; could they not see this kingdom? Do we not talk about seeing the progress of truth, the triumph of truth, and the upbuilding of truth? Then, why could not the primitive Christians see the kingdom of God come, when it was set up with such power and glory at the destruction of Jerusalem? But to see this was to see Christ come, for he came in his kingdom; his coming was the coming of his kingdom.

Such, then, is the sense in which Christ came at the destruction of Jerusalem. It was not a personal coming; but a coming in the power of judgment, and the triumphs of truth. What is said about the darkening of the sun and moon, and the falling of the stars, is poetic imagery, borrowed from the prophets, who used the same when they represented God as coming on a swift cloud against Egypt, and in fire and wrath against the rebellious.

Thus this difficulty is entirely removed; the Scriptures are perfectly consistent. When rightly understood, there is no disagreement among their writers.

Having shown how Christ came, we will now proceed,

II. To show for what he came. This I will do in the very language of Scripture. But before doing this, I wish to state, as briefly as I can, the situation of the Christians, previously to the destruction of Jerusalem. Although Judea at this time was subject to the Romans, and obliged to pay an annual tax for the support of the Roman government, the Jews had a government of their own, and with certain restrictions