preserve thee and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages, that thou mayest say to the prisoners (in the grave), Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves (Isa. 49:8-9).

Christ is given to us as a covenant, as a pledge and guarantee that what God hath promised us, he will surely perform. He himself is the first-fruits of them that slept. This guarantees the resurrection to life eternal of all them who sleep in Jesus; and as the first-fruits have been manifest, so will the harvest of the righteous be.

Why "Sure" Mercies

The mercies that come through the house of David are said to be sure mercies because they are guaranteed by the oath of the living God, as Peter showed on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2: 30) when interpreting the covenant made with David as recorded in the seventeenth chapter of I Chronicles, saying, “Therefore (David), being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne, he seeing this before, spake (Ps. 16) of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell (that is to say, his body was not left in the grave), neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus," adds the apostle, "hath God raised up, whereof we all (the twelve apostles) are witnesses."

Why Called Mercies

They are so called because when the righteous die (as it is appointed unto all men once to die and return to dust), they are then in an utterly helpless and destitute condition and would never exist any more were it not that God has mercy on them and will raise them up from the dead to life eternal at the last day by the hand of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore upon our belief of the true Gospel and baptism into the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, or into the name of Jesus Christ which is the same thing, God grants unto us repentance unto life and forgiveness of sins in this act of obedience of faith in the present time, and at the last day, a resurrection with the sons of God to glory, honor, and immortality, to reign in life with Christ, as kings and priests of the order of Melchisedec upon the earth. This is the form in which the sure mercies of David are offered to us in this age. But the form in which they will be offered to all nations in the day when the veil is taken away will then be made known.

THE DESTRUCTION OF THE VEIL WHICH ENSHROUDS ALL NATIONS "And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people and the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory" (Isa. 25: 7-8). The veil will be destroyed by swallowing up death in victory; therefore, he who understands correctly what swallowing up death in victory signifies, will see what the means are which God will employ to destroy the veil which covers all nations. For our instruction Paul has interpreted this oracle and shown the meaning thereof in his first letter to the Corinthians (15:52-54) saying, "For the trumpet shall sound, and

the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written (Isa. 25), "Death is swallowed up in victory "; also (Hos. 13), “O Death, where is thy sting, O Grave, where is thy victory?"

To swallow up death in victory, therefore, signifies the resurrection of the saints of past ages from corruptibility into incorruptibility, and the translation of the righteous living at that time from mortality to immortality, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. This is one of the great events of the prophecies. This is what Jesus spake of when he said, “This is the Father's will, which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day" (John 6:39). And although the righteous have been, in the different ages, few in numbers comparatively, yet when they are all raised up that have ever lived from the creation of the world down to the coming of the great God and our Lord Jesus Christ, they will be counted by millions. Daniel and John speak of the saints and angels which will be present at that time as exceeding a hundred millions in numbers. Paul informs us that when the saints rise from the dead, they ascend to meet Christ in the air (even as Enoch and Elijah ascended), and so will ever be with the Lord. This is also in accord with what Jesus spoke in his prayer to his Father saying (John 17:24), "Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me, for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world."

THE COMING OF CHRIST WITH ALL HIS SAINTS

After the saints have been raised in glory to meet their Lord and master in the heavens above, and after they have been presented by him before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, faultless, that is, before the Father, for the Father himself is the glory of Christ; then Christ and his brethren enter upon the great work assigned them, as contained in the one hundred and forty-ninth Psalm, and elsewhere, to execute the judgment upon God's sinful nation, and also upon the heathen. And when these judgments are far advanced, when the time of tribulation such as never was since there was a nation for the righteous, which consists in war upon them by the rulers of Israel in alliance with the rulers of the Gentile armies assembled there,— when these tribulations for the righteous who have been developed from among the idolatrous tribes of Israel shall have rolled by, and the time has come for their persecutors to be trodden by the Assyrian as the mire of the streets (even as Peter says of the order of judgment, "For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God; and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?" (I Pet. 4:17), and as it was in Peter's day, so will it be again in the latter day); of that same time spake the Master, saying, "Immediately after the tribulation of those days, shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be

shaken." This highly figurative language refers not to the natural heavens, including the sun, moon, and stars thereof, except as similitudes and signs, but refers to the old heavens of Israel, to the kings, and princes, and priests, wise men, and prophets of God's rebellious nation which are now to pass away with great noise, and garments rolled in blood.

It is at this point of time when the powers of Israel's heavens are to be shaken, that Jesus testifies, saying, "And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory." It is of this coming that it is said in the Revelation (17), "Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him, Even so, Amen."

When it is said, "Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him," it has no reference to the eyes of mankind in other portions of the earth than in the land of Israel. Christ's coming with clouds in power and great glory in that day, takes place at Jerusalem and will only be witnessed by those in the range of vision. Therefore when it is said, "Every eye shall see him, and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him," this has especial reference to the people of Israel and the nations, kindreds, tongues, and people who are so often spoken of in this Book of the Revelation, whom God will have brought into his land to execute his judgment and to witness his wonders there; and those that are left of them when the judgment is finished will be sent back again to their own country and to the nations, to report what they will have seen and heard and been witnesses of at Jerusalem and in the holy land; for so it is written by the prophet saying, "It shall come that I will gather all nations and tongues, and they shall come and see my glory. And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the isles afar off that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory, and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles" (Isa. 66: 18-19).

When the heavens are opened before the eyes of the people of Israel and the assembled nations in Israel's land, in that day, they will then witness a spectacle that will shake and appall the stoutest heart. The mighty men shall cry there bitterly and be humbled into the dust for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth, for it is said, "Every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him, even so, Amen."

Very much is testified of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in the clouds of heaven in power and great glory, and of the many things which attend that glorious coming. His visible return to the earth to judge and reign will in some respects be after the manner of his ascension into heaven, as Luke records in Acts (1) saying, “And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from

you into heaven, shall so come in like manner, as ye have seen him go into heaven" (Acts 1:9-11).

Christ's ascension into heaven to sit on the right hand of the Majesty on high was from among the midst of his disciples. Jesus led his disciples out as far as Bethany, a town or village on the eastern side of the Mount of Olives about two miles southeast from Jerusalem, and lifted up his hands and blessed them, and in the act of blessing them he was parted from them and carried up leisurely into heaven in full view of his disciples; and the two men who were there in shining garments assured them that he would so come again in like manner, even as they had seen him go into heaven. He ascended from the Mount of Olives, and when he returns, his feet will stand again upon that same mountain.

Concerning his coming Jesus speaks saying (Matt. 16: 27), " For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels, and then he shall reward every man according to his works"; and again, he said (Matt. 25:31-32), “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from among the goats." Again Paul, in his letter to the Thessalonians speaks of "the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints" (I Thess. 3:13). Again, the Prophet Zechariah (14:4-5) testifies saying, "The Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee"; "And his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east."

A great and mighty earthquake will attend Christ's coming, for the prophet testifies that when his feet rest upon the Mount of Olives, the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof, toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley: and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. "And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah." From the foregoing Scriptures we learn that when the Son of man comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father, he will not come alone but will be attended with the angels, and all the saints will come with him. But as the Father hath put all things under his feet, so that all angels, authorities, and powers are made subject unto him, and as he is the head of the body, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, therefore he will be the chief and most glorious person that the inhabitants of the earth below will behold coming down from the heavens above. Jesus will be the most conspicuous and the most glorious object that the eyes of men will then behold.

But will the millions of saints who come with him in glory be also seen by the people of Israel and the nations? This will appear from what the Scriptures have testified on that subject, which may be presented as follows. In the ninety-eighth Psalm, speaking of the coming of the Lord and the attendant events, the prophet says (verse 2), “The Lord hath made known his salvation, his righteousness hath he openly showed in the sight of the heathen. . . . All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our

God." Again the Prophet Isaiah (52:10) speaks of these things saying, "The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God."

Now the meaning of these words may be gathered from what Simeon said, when in the Temple he took up the Child Jesus into his arms and blessed God and said, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." That is, he saw the person through whom salvation would come to the children of men. Again, John the Baptist came as the voice of one crying in the wilderness, saying, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God." That is, all people would see the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is called the salvation of God because immortality was first to be manifested in his own person by resurrection from the dead, and then he was to give that same salvation to all his brethren by resurrection to life eternal at the last day.

Immortal men, therefore, with Christ as their head constitute the salvation of God, as John so forcibly puts it saying, "The life was manifested and we have seen it, and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us" (I John 1:2). When therefore the Psalmist says, "His righteousness hath he openly showed in the sight of the heathen," he does not mean that they saw the principle of righteousness, but that they saw righteous men that God had crowned with life.

Again when he says that all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of God, this signifies that all the nations, kindreds, tongues, and people that God has gathered into his land from the four corners of the earth, and which are therefore called "the ends of the earth," have seen the Son of man coming in his kingdom and the millions of saints and angels who come with him in glory.

Again, when Isaiah testifies saying, "In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah, We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks," this strong city consists of the saints, and these walls and bulwarks are saved and immortal men such as the apostles will be, to whom Jesus said, "Ye shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Such men in that day will be stronger than walls of stone and solid masonry, and will protect the people over whom they reign from all invasions of the enemy.

Some conception of the overpowering grandeur of Christ's coming may be formed by contemplating and comparing what Matthew, Mark, and Luke have said of the miniature exhibition of Christ's coming that was shown to three of the apostles in the days of the Son of man. Jesus said on one occasion to his disciples, "Verily, I say unto you, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom." Therefore Matthew testifies, saying (17), "And after six days, Jesus taketh Peter, James and John, his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them, and his face did