Here we must take leave of the subject, and in closing return to the point from which

we commenced. The second coming of the Lord, as generally received, is not the theme

of the prison epistles, and as their peculiar message is the basis of our own testimony, the

absence of that doctrine from our pages in the past can be easily understood. We do,

however, entirely endorse the teaching that the world can never grow better apart from

the personal presence of the Lord, neither can the great and precious promises to Israel,

the nations, or creation itself, be realized apart from His return. All this is true, without

altering our own sphere of blessing and hope.  Though different companies of the

redeemed have as their respective hopes varying phases of the Lord's manifestation,

differing as greatly as the hope of those whose inheritance is found "above all

principality" differs from that of those meek ones who shall "inherit the earth",

nevertheless all--kingdom, church, body and bride--are united in the one blessed fact

that the Lord Himself is their hope. "Let us "live . . . . . looking".