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POSTSCRIPT.

IN a considerable number of passages the New Testament speaks of an appearance of Jesus Christ which belongs to the future life, or to the end of the present 'age' and the ages that are to follow it. It may not be uninteresting to examine these passages and consider what they have to tell us of the hopes entertained by the Church of the Apostolic age.

There is (1) a strongly attested belief that at His Return the Christ will be seen by the whole world, by His enemies as well as by His friends. For this there was support in more than one explicit saying attributed to the Lord Himself. To Caiaphas and to the Sanhedrin he said, Ye shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.1 On an earlier occasion, in an apocalyptic passage, we have the words, Then shall they see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and

'Mc. xiv. 62. So Mt., prefixing ȧr' äρri. Lc., who for åπ' äρTɩ has ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν, drops ὄψεσθε,

glory. This is echoed by the writer of the Apocalypse, with the graphic addition, And every eye shall see him, and they which pierced him.

This final manifestation to the world, with or without the special reference to unbelievers, is repeatedly mentioned in the Apostolic writings. It is announced in the Angels' message on the hill of the Ascension: this Jesus shall so

come in like

into heaven.2

3

manner as ye beheld him going St. Paul's Epistles are full of it, especially the earliest and the latest: the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire; until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which in its own times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate; I charge thee... by his appearing and his kingdom; looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ.5 S. Peter holds by the same hope: at the revelation of Jesus Christ.®

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But (2) the Church of the Apostles knew also

1 Mc. xiii. 26, and see Lc.; Mt. adds a reference to Zech. xii. 10 (cf. Apoc. i. 7).

2 Acts i. II.

8 I Th. iv. 16.

42 Th. i. 7 f., 1 Tim. vi. 14 f., 2 Tim. iv. I.

5 Tit. ii. 13.

61 Pet. i. 7.

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of a future revelation of Christ which was only for the faithful, and which was to be theirs, as it seems, in perpetuity. Sometimes the dead in Christ are viewed as already in His immediate Presence : knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord (for we walk by faith, not by sight), we are... willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord; 1 to to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain I am in a strait betwixt the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for it is very far better. But the actual vision of the Lord is connected, as it appears, with the great future which the Parousia will open. There is some (perhaps intentional) ambiguity in such words. as those of Christ on the night before He suffered: Again a little while and ye shall see me; I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, for they may be taken to refer to the return from the tomb or to the dispensation of the Spirit. But the more distant future seems certainly to be in view in the prayer, Father, that which thou hast given me, I will that where I am, they also may be with me; that they may behold my glory which 3 Jo. xvi. 16, 22.

12 Cor. v. 6 f.

2 Phil. i. 21, 23.

4 Cf. Westcott on S. John ad loc.: "the beginning of the new vision was at the Resurrection; the potential fulfilment of it was at Pentecost... the spiritual Presence will be caused by the

Return."

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thou hast given me.1 And it is clearly of the future that S. John writes: We know that if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him, for we shall see him even as he is; and again in the Apocalypse, His servants shall do him service, and they shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads. Then [we shall see], S. Paul adds, face to face.

How are these great hopes of the earliest Church to be interpreted in the light of modern knowledge and thought?

In the first place it must be noted that all the passages which are quoted above refer to modes of life of which we have as yet no experience. We know nothing, except by conjecture or inference, of the capacities for vision or apprehension possessed either by departed spirits or by spirits clothed in a spiritual body. In reference to these stages of existence the New Testament expresses itself in the terms of our present life, or if it departs from these, the alternative is to use a symbolism which carries us but little further. The question to be determined is what were the substantial beliefs and expectations which the earliest believers entertained with regard to future manifestation of Christ.

1Jo. xvii. 24.

3 Apoc. xxii. 3.

21 Jo. iii. 2.

41 Cor. xiii. 12.

Two modes of 'seeing the Lord' were within the reach of the primitive Church after the coming of the Spirit. There was (1) the spiritual sight of faith, which had taken the place of ocular evidence. It is to this, perhaps, that the Lord chiefly refers when He speaks of seeing the Eleven again after His departure and being seen by them. The 'eyes of their hearts' were, as S. Paul says, 'enlightened' by the Spirit, and they rejoiced (so S. Peter adds) with joy unspeakable.2 Looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of their faith they ran with patience the race that was set before them.3 Their realization of the hidden life of Jesus Christ with God was so thorough and constant that it not only inspired a joy which no man could take from them, but controlled their lives, causing them to endure to the end. But (2) besides the vision of faith, there was given to some-at first, perhaps, to not a few-the singular power of isolating themselves from phenomena, and anticipating the unseen and eternal in such wise that they knew not at the time whether they were 'in' the body or 'outside' it. In this state of 'ecstasy,' as it was called, visions

1 Eph. i. 18 πεφωτισμένους τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς τῆς καρδίας ὑμῶν.

21 Pet. i. 8.

3 Heb. xii. 2.

4Jo. xvi. 22.

52 Cor. xii. 2 εἴτε ἐν σώματι οὐκ οἶδα, εἴτε ἐκτὸς τοῦ σώματος. 6 EKσTaσis (Acts x. 10, xi. 5, xxii. 17).

K

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