aled. This trump is
mentioned by our Saviour (Matt. xxiv. 31.) and is the gospel trump
which was to commence its sound at the destruction of Jerusalem. In
Rev. chap. viii, seven trumpets were given to seven angels, who are
represented as sounding them in succession, and increasing woes
following, till the sixth trumpet sounded. But when the seventh angel
sounded and the last dreadful wo passed away, a very different order
of things followed. Rev. x. 7. "But in the days of the voice of the
seventh angel when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should
be finished as he hath declared to his servants the prophets." Rev.
xi. 15. "And the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in
heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of
our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever." Now
compare these woes and this subsequent order of things with the
tribulations Christ described in Matt xxiv chap. And the subsequent
life the righteous entered into, and you will readily perceive that
both refer to the destruction of Jerusalem and the commencement of
Christ's auspicious reign. (The Revelations were certainly written
before that event.) When the seventh angel sounded, Christ came in his
kingdom and began his reign; and that he began his reign when the
trumpet sounded, and the woes recorded in Matt. Xxiv. And xxv.
Chapters took place, will not be denied. This settles the point that
the _seventh or last_ trump was not to sound at the close of Christ's
reign, but at its commencement. And under this last sounding trump the
dead were to be raised immortal, and those who were alive when it
commenced its sound, were to be suddenly changed in their
circumstances and feelings as described in the context. It was the day
of their redemption from all their trials and persecutions, and doubts
and fears.

That this was the period when the Christians entered the _resurrection
day_ as well as the _judgment day_ under Christ is certain. They
entered into the full enjoyment of that most sublime of all doctrines
in the faith of which they not only saw the dead raised immortal and
free from pain, but felt themselves new beings. They were exalted from
the dust to high and "heavenly places in Christ," were "caught up to
meet the Lord in the air," were seated "on thrones and made priests
and kings to God and reigned with Christ." There "they shone like the
brightness of the firmament and the stars fo