OUR CHRIST

He, after all, is the basis of our creed and He alone is the adequate inspiration of conduct! I regret the necessity of abbreviating when I speak of Him. Peter does not conclude this argument until he pays tribute to Him; but he knows how to unite his praise to Christ with an appeal to Christians! "But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever. Amen." How rich the suggestions which we may bring from this verse! But it clearly involves the necessity of our spiritual growth.

Of Christ's grace we should have an increased experience. Regeneration is essential to spiritual existence, but is only the beginning. The "grace that is in Christ" is equal to much more than a mere beginning. The mother who brings the babe to birth has in her own being the infant's sustenance, and the Christ who, by the Holy Ghost, begets us into a new life, has in Himself all spiritual sufficiency.

Our ascended Lord has "gifts" for men and a Christian who anticipates His descent should utilize those gifts and mark growth for himself.

This growth is extended by increasing knowledge of Him. In the judgment of the apostle, to the experience of His grace we should add the acquisition of His "knowledge." In fact, Peter aforetime said, "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of

Jesus our Lord, according as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue" (2 Pet. 1:2-4).

Finally, to His name we should bring expressions of never-ending glory. "To Him be glory both now and for ever. Amen."

It is impossible to dwell upon the riches of His grace and increase in the knowledge of Him, without coming to the point where one is compelled to glorify Him.

Matthew Bridges, reflecting upon what Christ has been, what He is, and what He is to become, calls upon men to break forth into praises and voices himself after this manner. Shall we not conclude this-the greatest premillennial convention yet held on any continent-by joining with him in saying:

"Crown Him with many crowns,

The Lamb upon the throne,

Hark, how the heavenly anthem drowns

All music but its own!

Awake, my soul, and sing

Of Him who died for Thee;

All hail Him as thy matchless King,

Through all eternity.

"Crown Him the Lord of years,

The Potentate of time,

Creator of the rolling spheres

Ineffably sublime.

Crown Him, the Lord of Love;

Behold His hands and side,
Which wounds, yet visible above
In beauty glorified:

"No angel in the sky

Can fully bear that sight,

But downward bends his burning eye

At mysteries so bright. Glassed in a sea of light

Whose everlasting waves

Reflect His form-the Infinite

Who lives and loves and saves."

THE RETURN, THE RESURRECTION, AND

THE RAPTURE

REV. WILLIAM B. RILEY, D.D.

Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Minneapolis;
President of the Northwest Bible School;
Bible teacher and lecturer.

Of all the privileges accorded me in this great Conference, I most highly esteem the opportunity of speaking to you, my fellow preachers.

These three great words, the Return, the Resurrection, and the Rapture, deserve each a separate and extended discussion. The only reasons, therefore, for trying to bring them within the limits of a single discourse exist in two circumstances. First, the other discussions brought to this Conference have involved very many of the features of both the return and the resurrection; and secondly, Paul, by the pen of inspiration, links these all together in both logical and doctrinal order. With that marvelous brevity which is the soul of inspiration, he presents them in five short verses: "But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that fall asleep; that ye sorrow not, even as the rest, who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus

will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are fallen 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 that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (I Thess. 4:13-17).

This inspired statement is to the whole subject of the return, the resurrection, and the rapture, what the architect's preliminary sketch is to the finished structure. In each instance it remains for

the workers to fill in, and to fill up. A good student will, in a Spirit-led research of the Word, find material at hand for the completion of the great doctrines that Paul here briefly, yet boldly, outlines. As the stones wrought into the temple of God were each ready for its place, requiring not the touch of the hammer, but rather, a perfect knowledge of the plans and careful placing; so the man who works on these great doctrines, with Paul's plan before him, will find no need to change, carve, or unnaturally constrain the sacred sentences of Scripture. When properly put together, they give perfect proof of the divine plan, and provide an unanswerable argument for premillennarianism. Men have sometimes sought to set Peter, or Paul, or John, against Jesus; but