These are privileges ; and yet it might be said, on the other hand, that these saints do not taste the gladness of resurrection ; that they are not conformed to their Lord in this, that he died and rose. Still the end in both cases is the same, — the one shall have no advantage, no pre-eminence over the other. Both are " presented faultless before the presence of his glory with ex- ceeding joy ; " both equally faultless, though each has undergone a different
might see his kingdom come ! It is the character of his saints to love his appearing and to look for that blessed hope ; ' The Spirit and the bride say come ; even so, come, Lord Jesus.' Come quickly, is the voice of faith, and hope, and love. But I find not that his "servants are thus characterized by their desire to die. It is therefore the presence of their Lord that they desire, but it is death that they abhor ; and therefore, though they can submit to death, it is the coming of Christ that they love and long for. If death be the last enemy to be destroyed at the resurrection, we may learn how earnestly believers should long and pray for the second coming of Christ, when this full and final conquest shall be made. There is something in death that is penal, even to believers ; but in the coming of Christ and their resurrection there is nothing but glorifying grace/' Works, vol. zvii. p. 555 — 590.
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process for the accomplishing of this. Thus, the one being changed and the other raised, they are formed into one company, marshalled into one mighty army, and then caught up into the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
The particulars of this coming, in so far as the apostle gives them, let us briefly look into. The Lord himself shall descend from heaven. The same Jesus that as- cended ; he who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood ; he — his own self — shall come — come in like manner as he was seen go into heaven. With a shout* This is the shout of a monarch's retinue, the shout of a great army. Just as God is said to have gone up with shouts, so is he to return ; return with the shout of the conqueror, the shout of triumph. Tfie voice of the archangel. A solitary voice is then heard making some mighty announcement, such as that of the angel standing upon sea and earth, and proclaim-
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tng that there should be time no longer (Rev. x. 6) ; or of that other angel, with whose glory the earth was lightened, cry- ing with a loud voice, Babylon is fallen (Rev. xviii. 2) ; or of that other angel, who cried with a loud voice to all the fowls of heaven, " Come, gather yourselves unto the supper of the great God." (Rev. xix. 17.) The trump of God* It is elsewhere called " the last trump." (1 Cor. xv. 52.) It is God's own trumpet, the trumpet that awakes the dead ; not a voice merely, — as if that were too feeble for such a purpose, nor a common trumpet, but the trump of God, one that can pierce the grave and awake the dead.
These are the steps and the accompani- ments of the advent. There is first the shout of the angelic host, as the Redeemer leaves his seat above to take possession of his kingdom here. This shout is continued as he descends. Then, as he approaches nearer, the multitude of the heavenly host
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is silent, and a solitary voice is heard, the voice of the archangel uttering God's mes- sage ; then comes the trumpet that calls forth the sleeping just. They obey the call. They arise. No holy dust remains behind. They put on immortality. Then, joined by the transfigured and glorified living, they hasten upwards to the embrace of their beloved Lord.
It is into " the clouds," or " cloud," that they are caught up ; that cloud, or clouds, which in all likelihood rested above Eden, making it the place of " the presence of the Lord "(Gen. iii. 8; iv. 14, 16); which appeared to Moses at the bush ; which led Israel over the Red Sea and through the desert ; which covered Sinai ; which dwelt in the tabernacle and in the temple; which Isaiah saw ; which Ezekiel described ; which shone down upon the Son of God at his baptism and transfiguration ; which received him out of sight at his ascension ; which Stephen saw when breathing out
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his soul ; which smote Saul to the ground on his way to Damascus ; which, last of all, appeared to John in Patmos ; and which we know shall yet re-appear in the latter day. Into this cloud of the Divine presence, this symbol of the excellent glory, Jeho- vah's tent or dwelling-place, the ark of our safety against the flood of fire, shall the saints be caught up when the Lord ap- pears, and the voice is heard from heaven, " Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust :" and as it was said in Israel, 4C the song of the Lord began with trumpets," (2 Chron. xxix. &7,) even so with the trump of God shall our resurrection-song begin.