draweth nigh;"[1] but James was in error. Paul assured the Thessalonians that "we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air."[2] Whether Paul expected to be "caught up" to "the clouds" by the hair of the head I know not; but he gave up the ghost and went to his grave, no doubt much disappointed that he had never officiated as a divine paper kite by rising "to meet the Lord in the air."
Christ did not threaten, either, to come in a quiet, gentlemanly fashion, but with the most terrible accompaniments of smoke, thunder, blood, and blazes the world had ever seen. "The abomination of desolation" (whatever that might be) was to stand "in the holy place;" but it is not recorded how many legs it had to stand upon. And Matthew the publican tears away in this fashion: "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 the heavens shall be shaken, And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven; 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. And he shall send his angels with the great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather his Elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."[3]
So, you see, when Christ comes there is to be a very considerable row. And the row is to be of such a character that I do not clearly see how the police will be able to stop it. Matthew talks of the stars falling from heaven. No doubt he was of opinion that he would be able to catch three or four of them in his cap as they fell. Possibly he contemplated taking them down into a cellar and breaking them up with a hammer, just to see what they were made of, and what made them twinkle and shine. Nobody seems to have been so ignorant of the magnitude and awfulness of the universe as the "creator" thereof and his special apostles and saints.
- ↑ [Erratum: 1 Thess. iv. 17.]
