By a process of reasoning the astronomer Adams discovered the planet Neptune before it had been seen by human eyes. He knew that there must he such a planet,because its existence was essential for the explanation of other undoubted facts. In the same way, although it cannot be proved from history that the Lord Jesus personally and visibly returned to the earth at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem i n 70 A. D., yet relying on His solemn teaching we may be morally certain that He did so return. The past Second Advent is the key to the understanding of the whole New Testament. In the light of this one event a world of mystery vanishes and a new world of truth stands revealed.

For instance, there is the vexed question of Future retribution. In this case the past Second Advent goes far towards solving a problem which many thoughtful Christians have reckoned not capable of being solved. In Matt. xxv.31-46, we have a detailed account of the judgment previously referred to in Matt. xvi. 27, 28, which was to take place when the Son of man came in glory with His holy angels to render to every man according to his deeds. Our Lord had solemnly declared that some of those who listened to Him during His earthly ministry would live to see Him thus coming in His Kingdom. The parable of the Sheep and the Goats must therefore refer not to the world wide judgment, still future but to the spiritual Judgment of the Jews, which followed the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. [1] This may seem irreconcilable with the use of the words "all nations" or "all the nations" (Matt. xxv. 32). Yet exactly the same words occur in 2 Tim. iv. 17, where the meaning obviously is individuals out of every nation. Paul, speaking of His first appearance before Nero, declares: "The Lord stood by me, and strengthened me; that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and that all the Gentiles might hear," i.e., persons of various nationalities then present in Rome. Certain it is that the phrase conveyed a narrower signification to the Jews who first heard it, than that, which we have been accustomed to attach to it. It, may have meant " all the tribes of Palestine," for Josephus uses the same word when He speaks of the "nation" of the Galileans and the "nation" of the Samaritans.

It is also worthy of remark that although our Lord bade His apostles make disciples of "all the nations" Peter did not, know until several years afterwards that it was right and obligatory to preach the gospel to the Gentiles (Acts x. 14). When found fault with for so preaching he did not reply as otherwise we should certainly have expected him to do:

"These are the very people to whom the Lord Jesus, in His parting words, commanded us to Preach !" An examination of the parable itself in the light of these facts will clear away various difficulties which are unanswered by any other interpretation, and will deepen the conviction that we have here an account of the spiritual judgment which took place at Christ's Second Advent in 70 A.D.

The division into two classes.-The separation of men, spiritually and morally, into two and only two classes is not true to human nature as we ordinarily find it. Human nature as we ordinarily find it is a strange admixture of good and evil. Little as theologiaiis have recognized this truth, the mass of men are neither saints nor devils! Often the bad man is not so bad as he seems, and the good man is not so good. Some of our best hopes for the world are based on the fact that, in countries where the gospel has been preached, human society as generally constituted may be divided morally and spiritually into four classes. (1) Christians (a, small minority) who are living really saintly and approximately Christlike lives-sons of God with out, rebuke-the light of the world and the salt of the earth. (2) Christians (the majority) who are real believers and true servants of God , yet having many faults unconquered, and living, it may be, very inconsistent lives. [2] Their experience has been aptly portrayed in Romans vii., but they have not yet attained to the full blessedness and complete liberty described in Romans viii. The good which they would, they do not, and the evil which they would not, that they practise.They delight in the law of' God after the inward man ; but they find a mighty principle, of evil still at work within them, warring against the Christ and still enslave them (Romans vii. 19, 22, 23). (3) Unbelievers (the majority) who, like the young ruler whom Jesus loved, lead outwardly moral lives and have in them exceedingly much that is good. (4) Hardened unbelevers (a small minority) in whom all goodness is tending to become extinct.. They sin out of sheer wickedness and perversity, and are in danger or becoming children of the devil.

We are never at a standstill spiritually and morally. Every experience in life has an influence, perceptible or imperceptible, on our characters; and none, leaves us quite the same men as it found us. The struggle between the principles of good and evil within us cannot cease until one or the other gains a complete victory. Thus each individual must, ultimately, either attain to the perfect image of the Christ, or sink into complete and therefore irrecoverable evil. Then we are ripe for final judgment and final separation. This explains the division of men, according to the parable, into two and only two classes. Suffering either melts a man's heart or hardens it ; and the intense unparalleled sufferings which fell on believers and unbelievers alike, in the last days of the Jewish dispensation, must have made their characters develop very quickly, [3] and have gone far to turn at last every individual either into a saint-fit to be welcomed to the heavenly Kingdom, the Father's house of many mansions; or into a devil-fit only to be burned up and consunled in the quenchless flames of Gehenna.

The test of character.- Their treatment of the Lord's sit, ring brethren is the standard or criterion by which, in the parable, men are Judged and their true characters made manifest. This was a test peculiarly appropriate to the times of fierce persecution which accompanied the last, years of the Jewish dispensation. But it is hard to understand its application to the world in general, when we remember the myriads in Africa. India, China, and elsewhere who have lived and died without ever having seen a Christian, or even heard the name of the Saviour.

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