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UNLAWFUL MARRIAGE.

Michal, Saul's daughter, had no child unto the day of her death," (2 Sam. 6:23,) does not imply that she had a child at her death, or after that event, as an unreflecting person might imagine.—Paul says, "Then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air." (1 Thes. 4:17.) Some might feel inclined to suppose Paul believed that he and some of the Thessalonians would be alive at the second advent of our Redeemer; but though the words of the apostle seem to imply it, we know he did not so believe.—In answer to Peter's question about John, "Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me." What inference was drawn from these words of our Lord? The sacred historian has told us: "Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die." Was this inference correct? It was not; for John, we know, did die; and he himself adds, as a corrective of their mistake, "Yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die, but if I will that he tarry till I come, what is that o thee?" (John 21:20–23.)