appearing in various forms-as a gardener, as a traveler etc.-all to convince them first, that He was no longer dead, but risen; and secondly, that He was no longer a man, but a Spirit Being. This He demonstrated by doing exactly what the angels did. As they had appeared in the flesh; ate, talked and vanished; so did He. Then He ascended up on High, not as a human being, "a little lower than the angels," but as a Divine Spirit Being, far above angels. There He received the homage of all the Heavenly host.

No Need to Appear Again in the Flesh

Thus it is seen that there was a necessity for our Lord's appearing in the manner He did to His disciples after His resurrection; but this necessity will not exist at His Second Advent. That at His Second Coming our Lord could assume the human form and thus appear to men, there can be no question. But such a manifestation would be out of harmony with the general tenor of God's Plan, as well as out of harmony with the Scriptural indications given, relative to the manner of His manifestation, as we shall see. Instead, it is the Lord's purpose that His Spiritual Kingdom shall communicate, operate and manifest its presence and power through human, earthly agencies. Just as the Prince of this world, Satan, though unseen by man, exercises a wide influence in the world through those subject to him and who are possessed of and controlled by his spirit, so the new Prince of Peace, our Lord Jesus, will operate chiefly through human beings, subject to Him and possessed of and controlled by His Spirit.

Ultimately All Shall Discern Him

If it be urged that several Scripture texts state that "every eye shall see Him," we would remind the reader that seeing with the natural eye and hearing with the natural ear are not all there is of seeing and hearing. The text, "every eye shall see Him," re

lates not to the natural eyes, but to the eyes of understanding, so long darkened, confused, bewildered by error. Ultimately the true light shall shine; the true knowledge of the Lord shall fill the earth, and all shall receive a blessing thereby. "No man hath seen God at any time" thus; and yet all of God's children have seen Him and have held communion with Him. (John 1:18; 5:37; 14:7.) We hear God's call; and we see the prize, the Crown of Life which He promises to the faithful overcomer-not by natural sight and hearing, but by our understanding.

In this connection it is worthy of note that the Master said: "Yet a little while and the world seeth me no more." (John 14:19.) When once we discern that He has been glorified -that He has been given a spirit nature again, and that He no longer has the human nature which He surrendered as a Sin Sacrifice-then we can see why the world can see Him no more, and why the Church must be changed by resurrection power before she can see Him.

Careful Bible study reveals the fact that four different Greek words are used in respect to Christ's Second Coming. One word frequently used is parousia, which signifies presence, not coming, in our ordinary use of the word. Over and over again the Scriptures tell of the Presence of the Son of Man in the end of this Age, and declare that during His Parousia the world will be unaware of it and attending to the ordinary affairs of life. Note our Savior's reference to this very point. In Matt. 24:37-39 He says: "As the days of Noah, so shall also the PAROUSIA (presence) of the Son of Man be."

Let it not be overlooked that the point of comparison here is not between the coming of Noah and the coming of our Lord, nor between the coming of the Flood and the coming of our Lord.

The coming of Noah is not referred to at all. Neither is the coming of our Lord referred to; for, as already

stated, the word Parousia does not mean coming, but presence. The contrast, then, is between the time of the presence of Noah amongst the people "before the Flood," and the time of the presence of Christ in the world at His Second Advent before the fire the extreme trouble of the Day of the Lord, with which this Dispensation ends. The people, with the exception of Noah's family, were both ignorant of the coming storm and unbelieving as to the testimony of Noah and his family; and hence "they knew not." This is the point of comparison.

"So shall also the presence of the Son of Man be." None but those of the family of God will believe. Others will know not until society as at present organized begins to disintegrateto melt with the fervent heat of the Time of Trouble already started among the nations. (2 Peter 3:10-13.) The Lord's people will know of the Master's presence in advance of the world, not by some outward sign, but by the light of the Word of God. "Ye, brethren, are not in darkness that that Day should overtake you as a thief”though it shall come as a thief and as a snare on all the world.-1 Thess. 5:1-6.

How Mankind Shall See the Lord

With equal clearness the Scriptures point out that the Presence of Jesus is to be made manifest to the world. He is to "appear," to be "revealed." His Presence is to be made known to the world so that "every eye shall see Him;" that is, that the eyes of understanding of the whole human family shall be opened to a realization of the great truth that Messiah's Kingdom has come into power, henceforth to rule the world, to overthrow sin and Satan, to uplift righteousness, to bless all the willing and obedient of humanity and to destroy in the Second Death all wilful sinners.

The symbolic picture represents the whole fabric of society-ecclesiastical, political and financial-as on fire. St. Peter declares that "the elements shall

melt with fervent heat"-the social elements. Concerning that awful trouble the Bible declares: "He shall be revealed . . . in flaming fire, taking vengeance." (2 Thess. 1:7, 8.) The fire is figurative of destructive forces, influences, such as war, famine, ànarchy, etc. Thus is will be a consuming wrath, as indicated by the symbol, a fire which will leave neither root nor branch of evil systems, errors, oppression or of wilful sinners. (Mal. 4:1.) As these dealings become more and more apparent, men will begin to draw the inference that a new power has taken control of human affairs, and thus the Presence of our Lord as King of Kings shall be revealed to the world.

"The Time is at Hand."

Already the world sees the clouds. of trouble gathering and darkening. They realize that now at work in the affairs of men is a power with which they cannot cope. From the present outlook the near future is dark and ominous to all who have sufficient intelligence to mark the trend of events. The poetess caught the proper thought when she wrote respecting the revealment of Christ's Presence:

"I see His flaming judgments as they circle all the earth,

The signs and groanings promised to precede a second birth;

I read His righteous sentence in the crumbling thrones of earth

Our King is marching on!"

Thinking men observe the persistency with which questions of right and wrong, justice and injustice, are forced upon their consideration, demanding an expression of their individual principles. Many recognize the glory and power of earth's new Ruler; yet because the clouds and darkness are around about Him, they do not recognize the King Himself. Men see "the clouds," and therefore "see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory"-the glory of justice and power; but they do

not recognize HIM yet. (Matt. 24:30.) The kings, emperors and czars of the world would no more give over to our Lord Jesus their power and dominion than would the clergy give over the spiritual control. The Divine Program seems to be to permit human institutions to wreck themselves in showing their own incompetency and opposition to the Divine arrangement. Thank God for the better Day beyond, when the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His beams for all the families of the earth! Thank God that the Redeemer, full of sympathy, will be wise to know how deeply the plowshare of sorrow and trouble may go to prepare properly men's hearts for the rich blessings which His Millennial Kingdom will bestow! Thank God for the assurance that Messiah's Kingdom shall prove to be "the desire of all nations."

An increasing number of Bible students, all over the world, are convinced from Scriptural testimony backed by outward evidences that our Lord's Parousia began in October, 1874. The great enlightenment that has come to the world as well as to Bible students during the period since that date is accredited to the fact that we have been living in the dawn of the New Dispensation. Admitting that those who thus interpret prophecy are not infallible

in their interpretations, we must nevertheless concede that all about us today are signs which closely tally with what the Bible tells respecting conditions at the Second Coming of Christ.

Let us note some of these: Both St. Paul and St. Peter declared that the end of the age would be marked by a form of godliness which would lack power; that it would be marked by disobedience to parents, by headiness, by high-mindedness, by love of pleasure, by unreliability. (2 Tim. 3:1-5; 2 Peter 3:1-4.) The Prophet Daniel declares that in the Time of the End of the present order-in the time of the dawn of the new order-"many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased," and "the wise shall understand." Moreover, "there shall be a Time of Trouble such as never was since there was a nation." (Dan. 12:1, 4, 10.) Do not these things give God's people a ground for faith that we are now in the close of the Gospel Age and the dawning of the Messianic Age, when all the world is to be blessed by God's Kingdom? The only satisfactory explanation of the times in which we are living is that these are "the days of the Son of Man." Of course, many will scoff at the thought; but God's saintly ones are lifting up their heads and rejoicing, knowing that their deliverance draws nigh.-Luke 21:28.

G

ERMANY has found a spiritual antagonist in Henri Bergson, the man who stands for what is best in the life and philosophy of modern France. His recent utterances are prophetic of the new philosophy which will ultimately pull down and utterly destroy the false ideals which are making a bloody ruin of Europe.

This philosophy of tomorrow will regard our present material civilization as a magnificently and marvelously developed brute. Science and invention have equipped its great body with many strange devices, and each new device is an artificial organ which extends, in a manner outreaching our farthest imaginings, the power of the brute. It can fly in the air and it can dive into the depths of the sea. It speaks over leagues of space and it hurls its deadly missiles over stretches of miles. It breathes deadly gases from its nostrils, and the flash of its eye reveals the enemy lurking in the darkness. But the development of the soul has not kept pace with the abnormal growth of the body. The whispering of the little soul that lives within our modern world cannot be heard above the terrible crunching and grinding of the wheels.

Our civilization is a complex system made up of highly developed primal functions. Our international relationships and diplomacy are often merely

the latest stages in the evolution of tribal relationships, of primitive competition, jealousy and hostility. Commerce is merely the dickering of a Stone Age savage carried out on a big scale. We are on the scale of the twentieth century in body, but on the scale of the Stone Age in soul.

The future of the race depends upon the investment within the body of our material civilization of a soul large enough to harness and direct its wonderful mechanism, for without this higher spirit the great machine will get beyond our control, becoming the instrument of inborn, brutish impulses. It will turn upon us as the monster of our own making, bringing to ghastly ruin the things we dearly cherish.

There are two opinions in the background of men's minds in this age of crisis. The one is that the world has escaped from the control of the higher spirit, and the other is that our efforts to get it back under control will develop within the race a new strength of soul. The soul and the beast are wrestling together through this night, but the dawn shall be for the soul. Peace will bring into life a new and unheard of philosophy that will interpret life in terms that are strange to us, transforming our ways of thinking and transfiguring human relationships. The elements are melting in fervent heat, but out of it all will come a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.

MASTE

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