one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us
from all sin" (1 S. John i. 7).

And as the Saints, by virtue of this Communion with God, have the
assurance of "The forgiveness of sins;" so likewise they look joyfully
forward in hope of "The Resurrection of the Body" and "The Life
Everlasting." For "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" (1 Thess. iv. 16, 17).

FOOTNOTE:

[30] Consequently the expression "in Christ" or "in the Lord" is
frequently used to denote the fact of a person being a Christian. Thus
S. Paul sends greeting to certain, who had been converted before
himself, in these words, "Salute Andronicus and Junia who were in
Christ before me" (Rom. xvi. 7); and describes the Christians of
Palestine, at the time of his visit, as "the Churches of Judaea which
were in Christ" (Gal. i. 22). And thus of the Christian departed it is
said, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord" (Rev. xiv. 13).

CHAPTER XI.

CONCLUSION.

"From Heaven He came and sought her
To be His Holy Bride,
With His own Blood He bought her,
And for her life He died."

"The Kingdom of Heaven," what is it?

It is the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ. It is that
Kingdom which was prophetically set forth by our Lord in His parables;
that Kingdom, the subjects of which were described in His teaching,
and redeemed by His Blood to be His own "purchased possession" (Eph.
i. 14); that Kingdom which was founded through the coming of the Holy
Ghost--being a spiritual Kingdom not of the world, though at present
in the world--and which was preached from land to land as an Universal
Kingdom, intended to embrace the whole race of man.

The purpose for which our Blessed Lord came down from Heaven, and
"humbled Himself even to the death upon the cross" (Phil. ii. 8), was
that He might found this Kingdom. "He purchased" it at no less a cost
than "with His own blood" (Acts xx. 28). For He "loved the Church and
gave Himself for it[31]" (Ephes. v. 25).

In other words, the salvation which is proclaimed in Holy Scripture,
as the great gift of God's love, is offered unto man through the means
of a Kingdom of which our Lord Jesus Christ is the King, and all the
men and women and little children in the world are intended to be the
subject