lf-deceived man that ever lived, he would have
pressed his one theme in every letter, forced it on unwilling minds
every time he opened his mouth or took up his pen.

"No wild enthusiast ever yet could rest
Till half mankind were like himself possessed."

'Tis an attractive theme. Long could we linger here, but we must pass
on; but before leaving, let us see if we were justified in saying that
whilst this word is based on no previous Scripture, yet, when spoken,
it is in harmony with all. First, then, is it not in perfect accord
with the peculiar character and calling of the Church? Israel, as a
nation, finds her final deliverance on the earth. Her calling and her
hopes have ever been limited to this scene. Fitting then, indeed, it
is that she be saved by her Deliverer's _feet standing once more on the
Mount of Olives_ (Zach. xiv. 4), and the judgment of the living nations
should then take place. But with the Church, how different: her
blessings heavenly; her character heavenly; her calling heavenly. Is
it not, then, in accord with this that her meeting with her Lord should
be literally heavenly, too? Israel, exponent of the righteous
government of God, may rightly long to "dip her foot in the blood of
the wicked." Nor can she expect or know of any deliverance except, as
of old, in victories in the day of battle. The Church, exponent of the
exceeding riches of His grace, is of another spirit; and our
deliverance "in the air" permits--nay, necessitates--our echoing that
gracious word of our Lord, "Father, forgive them."

Then too, how beautifully this rapture follows the pattern of His whom
the Lord's people now are following even to a dwelling that has no name
nor place on earth (John i. 38, 39). The clouds received Him: they,
too, shall receive us. Unseen by the world He left the world, too busy
with its occupations to note or care for the departure of Him who is
its Light. So the poor feeble glimmer of the Lord's dear people now
shall be lost, secretly, as it were, to the world in which they shine
as lights, leaving it in awful gloomy darkness till the Day dawn and
the Sun arise.

Nor is illustration or type lacking. In Enoch, caught up before the
judgment of the flood, surely we may see a figure of the rapture of the
heavenly saints before the antitype of the flood, the tribulation that
is to try "the dwellers upon the earth," as in Noah brought through
that judgment, a picture of the earthly