present age is characterized by "looking for . . . . . the appearing". The words "glorious

appearing" should be remembered that in Col. 1: 27 we found that the preaching of

Christ among the Gentiles during this parenthetical period ("to fill up the Word of God",

Col. 1: 25) was the pledge of their hope of glory, and that when Christ, Who is our life,

shall be made manifest, then ye also, shall be made manifest with Him in glory. So it is

with Titus 2: 13, the blessed hope is the manifestation of the glory. When hope is

realized, then that which has only been partially enjoyed "by faith" will be entered in

reality. Even now "by faith" we are raised together and made to sit together in the

heavenlies: then, when hope is realized, we shall sit there in reality.

It would not be a realization of my calling to find myself in the millennial kingdom,

however blessed and far beyond all merit such a lot would be. It would not be a

realization of my calling to find myself, for any possible reason, occupying one of the

twelve thrones of the apostles.  No, my faith has received the testimony of God

concerning this dispensation of the mystery, and the hope of that calling can only be

realized "far above all". At present the Lord Jesus waits until the time appointed shall

come. Before He descends, with all His angels, to take the kingdom and reign, He will

be made manifest "in glory". There will be a moment which will be "the manifestation

of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ". When that takes place, every

member of the blessed company that constitutes "the church which is His body" shall be

"made manifest with Him in glory". How do they get there? We are not told, and some

questions of a similar nature are not answered (I Cor. 15: 35). No one, whatever be his

calling, can enter into the realization of it apart from resurrection, but whether the

resurrection of this church will be individual or collective, visible or invisible, is not

revealed. The church of the mystery is not numbered among the denominations of

Christendom. Its sudden cessation would have no effect upon the religious world. Its

inception, its course, and its conclusion, are alike secret. Some will hear the archangel's

voice; some will hear the last trump; but not so the church of the one body. Before that

archangel speaks, or that last trump shall have sounded, every member of His body shall

have been "manifested with Him in glory".

We have not included Phil. 3: 20 in our study, believing that there the apostle deals

with the prize of the high calling and not its hope. We mention this in case our readers

should think that it had been overlooked. This "blessed hope" is unconnected with signs

of the times, except that as we see on the horizon the gathering together of events

prophesied in Scripture, we know that our own hope is nearer. If only we could just

"live . . . . . looking", this present age would have no hold upon us; we should indeed

"love His appearing".

We have now given the doctrine of the Lord's coming a survey, in which, though we

have had to pass over many interesting details, we have not consciously omitted any item

of importance. Apart from the hope of the one body, the whole doctrine of both the O.T.

and the N.T. on this subject is one and indivisible. While we dare not attempt to decide

for others what constitutes their hope, it is plain to ourselves that I Thess. 4: is not the

blessed hope of Titus 2: or of Col. 1: and 3: