It is further declared that "The Lord shall come in the clouds of heaven." The question again arises: What are we to understand by these? The clouds literally mean those masses of vapor, which, arising from the earth, are condensed and become visible in the atmosphere; and which surround the earth at the distance of a few miles. If we keep to the literal sense of the passage, these must be understood. But is it in these that the Lord is to descend? Is six or eight miles above the surface of the globe, heaven? Or can bodies which seldom rise beyond this elevation, be properly called the clouds of heaven? Or is this the glory with which the Lord is to be invested--the vapors which rise from the material globe? But this is not all. With Him the angels are also to descend. Now the nature of angels is not material; they exist not in space, nor are they included in its boundaries. How, then, we again ask, are spiritual beings to descend in a _material_ vapor? It would degrade the subject to carry these questions further; but every person's discernment will enable him to perceive that by no means can the _literal_ clouds be understood; and that these words must, like the former, be acknowledged as _figurative_. Here, therefore, at the very commencement we are obliged to _spiritualize_ both the _descent_, the _trumpet_, and the _clouds_. Do what we will, the literal sense is absurd. And if we are forced to allow that _part_ of the description cannot be literally understood, it is fair to conclude that the remainder has also an _internal_ meaning.