ripe." Rev. 14:14, 15.

The Resurrection of the Just, and the Translation of the Living
Righteous

The time to reap has come, and the wheat is gathered at last into the
garner of the Lord:

"We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in
the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall
sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be
changed." 1 Cor. 15:51, 52.

"He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they
shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of
heaven to the other." Matt. 24:31.

"This we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive
and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are
asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout,
with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead
in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be
caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air:
and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another
with these words." 1 Thess. 4:15-18.

[Illustration: THE EMPTY TOMB

"Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at His
coming." 1 Cor. 15:23.]

The righteous dead are raised to life as the trump of God sounds and the
voice of the Archangel calls to His sleeping saints, and the living
righteous are transformed from mortality to immortality. Then all
together, with the escort of the angels, they follow the Saviour to the
heavenly mansions that He has prepared in the city of God.

The Destruction of the Wicked

Before the glorious majesty of the coming King no sin can endure; for
true it is that "our God is a consuming fire"--now, in the day of His
mercy, consuming sin out of the heart that by faith approaches the
throne of grace, but in that day consuming the unrepentant sinner with
his sin.

"Where will the sinner hide in that day, in that day?
Where will the sinner hide in that day?
It will be in vain to call,
'Ye mountains on us fall!'
For His hand will find out all in that day."

It is the great day long foretold by seer and prophet.

Again let us read the description of what it will mean to the unsaved to
see Christ coming in glory; for the terror of that day must warn us now
to keep within the refuge of the Saviour's loving grace:

"The kings of the earth, and the great men, and