“Behold I come quickly,” was the last promise, “Even so come, Lord Jesus,” the last prayer, in Scripture. The glorious prospect of this quick return was the constant joy of the Apostles and early disciples of our Lord. Nor can any thing be more marked than the contrast between our thoughts and theirs, in reference to this important subject. They were for ever anticipating the time, and falling into error through their eager haste for the coming kingdom; we are too prone to stave off the thought of it, as a thing distant and uncertain. They could not rest without an eager inquiry as to the times and seasons of his approach; we, on the other hand, are tempted to sit still in listless apathy, with the eye blinded to the facts of history, with the ear deaf to the voice of prophecy, and so regardless of the knowledge really given us by God. They lived at the outset of the church’s pilgrimage, with a distance of at least 1,800 years between them and their joyous hope; and yet they most eagerly inquired, “When shall these things be?” We live on the very verge of its conclusion, with the great climax full in view; yet we go on as if the world were to last for ever, steeped in apathy the most profound, with reference alike to the event itself and to its times.

This indifference has arisen, in some measure, from a certain vague expectation of some undefined changes that are expected to precede the advent. There is a general idea afloat that there will be some notice of the glorious day; and even thinking persons look for the universal conversion of the world before the present dispensation can be brought to a close. In other cases, the mind instinctively shelters itself behind the sameness and uniformity in the order of society. No man doubts that, at the time appointed, the sun will rise to-morrow, for the simple reason that, day after day, it has risen hitherto with exact and unvarying punctuality. On the same principle, the continuance of the world’s order deadens the expectation of a change. Society remains unaltered in its leading features: pleasure, trade, and politics, retain their hold on the public mind. The father’s interests engross the son; and the natural inference is, that things will continue to move on as heretofore, and that there is little either to be hoped or dreaded in the prophetic promise of the Lord’s return.

Believers therefore should study well those portions of prophecy which describe the state of the world preparatory to our Lord’s return. All witnesses for Christ should be acquainted with the forerunners of his coming. Those who watch for him should know the signs of his appearing. In studying these signs there are three great classes which naturally come under review, the world, the visible church, and the chosen saints of God. Into each of these, if the Lord permit, we will examine separately. And may He, who alone “teacheth us to profit,” so pour forth his Spirit, both on the writer and the reader, that all may be “led into the love of God, and the patient waiting for Christ!”

THE WORLD.

In what condition will our Lord find society at his coming? What will be the spirit of the age? and what its habits and occupations when Christ appears to reign? This is our first question; and it is quite impossible to over-estimate its importance.I. There will be no stop to men’s pleasures before the advent. There will be no startling announcement which will prevail to check the pleasure hunters. They will be found pursuing their giddy course just as at present: they will not find their souls solemnized in anticipation of the great event: the nearness of the advent will not suffice to bring on repentance: if they are not subdued by the cross of Christ, they will not be by the prospect of his appearing. The great machinery of God’s providence will move on without their perceiving it: the signal will be already given, the angelic hosts already on the wing, and the door of grace already closed, before there are any such startling appearances before the world as shall arouse the mere pleasure hunter from his dreams. Our Lord teaches this in Matthew, xxiv. 37–39.—“As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not, until the flood came and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Noah’s preaching was the only notice of the coming flood. The world pursued its own course until the very day that the rain began to fall. On the evening before they were feasting joyously, perhaps scoffingly at the toilsome labours of the man of God; many doubtless laughing at the ark; when, unexpectedly, without further notice, in the midst of their festivity, the storm gathered, the door was closed, and the unbelieving world overwhelmed in judgment. “So,” saith the Lord, “shall be the coming of the Son of man.”

II. Nor will there he any stop to business.

The same passage from St. Matthew describes a state of active employment in the world:—“Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.” (xxiv. 40, 41). The men in the field and the women at the mill represent society as engaged in their daily callings. Nor is this description confined to the unconverted only; it includes both characters. Of the two men in the field one shall he taken, i.e. caught up to be with Christ as a believer; one shall be left, i.e. to perish as an unbeliever in the world: of the two women one shall be taken as a saint of God; one shall be left as a guilty subject of his wrath. The word here rendered “taken” is the same as was employed by our Lord when he said “I will come again and receive you unto myself;” and therefore all that are “taken” are chosen saints of God. Believers, therefore, and unbelievers, will go out on that very morning to their business. The streets, as usual, will be full, the shops open, trade flourishing; the accountant will be found at his desk, the merchant in his counting house, the tradesman in his shop, the judge on the bench, the lawyer at the bar, the statesman in his cabinet, and the children in the school. Nor will there be any check on their society. There will be the dinner party, the friendly intercourse of those who love the things of God, and the empty frivolities of those who live in pleasure. Men will have their balls, operas, and theatres, to the very last; they will dance on to the very morning of the resurrection. There will be no change in the habits of society, no alteration in the ordinary aspect of the world; we shall be living together in social life just as at present, with business, cares, and social duties; when suddenly—in a moment—in the twinkling of an eye—the whole shall be stopped by one shrill blast of the trump of God; and some rejoicing, some trembling, some singing hymns of joy, and some gnashing their teeth for woe, we shall be summoned before the Son of man.

These are features in the general aspect of society, which only show that there is nothing to prevent the immediate appearance of our Lord. But they do not belong exclusively to any period. For the last eighteen hundred years men have been “eating and drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage;” and, as far as these points are concerned, they may apply as well to any other time as ours. There are however other signs given, which tend rather especially to mark our own times as approaching closely to the latter days. Take for example the prophecy of Daniel, which teaches,

III. That, just before the advent, there shall be an increase of science and travelling. Daniel, xii. 4.—“But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” These words plainly refer to the latter days; not to the end itself, but to “the time of the end;” to the last period. Now, of this period there are two things predicted to the Prophet; the one religious, the other social; the religious change is the unsealing of the vision, or the opening of the eyes of believers to truths hitherto concealed in prophecy; the social change is the rapid progress of travelling and science throughout the world. It is the latter of these with which we are now concerned. At the time of the end, therefore, there is to be an increase of knowledge and of men running to and fro on the earth. Now, ask any common observer of mankind, one who looks on life without reference to prophecy or religion; ask him what he thinks the most remarkable feature in the present aspect of society, and he will tell you the rapid advance of science and increased facility of communication. Just contrast the world at large, in respect of travelling, with what it was fifty years ago. Most truly may it be said, “Men are running to and fro on the earth.” The leading commercial feature of the day is railway speculation; the habits of society are becoming materially changed through the ease and rapidity with which we travel. Thousands and tens of thousands have now become travellers, who, a few years since, had scarcely quitted the immediate neighbourhood of their native town. Nor is this confined to England. It is the same with America, Russia, India, and the whole continent of Europe. Look again at science, at the vast improvements in machinery, at the curious discoveries in every department of useful art, at the rapid increase of knowledge throughout the world. Look again at the connexion between the two. The increase of travelling is foretold by the Prophet in connexion with the advance of science. “Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” But in Daniel’s day there could appear no such connexion. The increase of knowledge could give no speed to the heavy motions of the camel. This connexion is a discovery of the last twenty or thirty years. The prophecy lay dormant for twenty-four centuries, when a new order of things sprang up amongst us; the connexion foretold in Daniel’s prophecy broke in upon the minds of men of science, and the immediate effect has been, that increased knowledge and increased travelling are going hand in hand throughout the world. Now I do not mean to strain this too far, or to represent it as a sign of the immediate approach of our Lord. It may be merely the commencement of a new era; “the time of the end” may be only dawning upon the world. But thus much we may safely say, that there has already been sufficient change in these two respects to satisfy the prophecy; that; if the coming were to be to-morrow, there is enough to convince the most hardened infidel, that Daniel’s words have received a literal, complete, and most remarkable, fulfilment. In this respect, therefore, the world is ready for the advent.

IV. There is reason to believe from the prophetic Scriptures that the nations of Europe will be the first nations of the world at the time of our Lord’s return.

It is curious to observe in history the rise and fall of the various nations which have successively occupied the foremost position in society. Like the gleam of sunshine on the landscape, civilization and power have beamed for a while upon successive kingdoms, and then left them to be obscured and darkened by the cloud. Thus Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, have successively swayed the sceptre of the world. This sceptre is now held by the European nations generally. The power is perhaps greater than in any former age; but there is this great difference, that now it is possessed by no nation singly, but divided amongst several. In former days, the Roman republic was itself sovereign and supreme; there was no other which could pretend to rivalry. It is not so now; there may be proud pretensions to national superiority; but all have the advantage of unquestionable superiority over the uncivilized nations of Africa and the East. Such changes are inexplicable on merely worldly principles: there is nothing in nature to explain this rise and fall of moral light. The student of history may endeavour to trace the causes of a nation’s gradual decline; but, why those causes themselves appeared is a question which no natural intellect can solve. The student of prophecy, however, is not left in darkness. He knows not why it is that an all-wise God has so ordered it, but he sees in all these changes the exact completion of God’s prophetic Scriptures, and at once solves the mystery by referring the whole to the revealed purpose of an all-wise and all-controlling God. In two separate visions these changes were all foretold by Daniel. As history says there have been, so prophecy foretold there should be, four ruling kingdoms in the world. We are taught this by the vision of the image and its explanation in Daniel, ii. 31–45; and by the vision of the four beasts, in Dan. vii. [17] From both we gather the same leading facts. (1.) That Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome should, in turn, succeed to the supremacy of empires held by Babylon at the time of the Prophet. (2.) That the fourth, or Roman empire, should appear under a two-fold aspect, at first being united like the foot, but afterwards divided like the toes. (3.) That this fourth empire should be the last; that there should be no fifth arising to supersede it; for that in the time of the ten kings, its second or divided period, should arise the kingdom of the Son of man. Dan. ii. 44.—“And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.” Now, as to the two first facts, there is an exact correspondence between history and prophecy. As was foretold, Persia succeeded Babylon, Greece Persia, and Rome Greece. The Roman power again has appeared under a two-fold form, first being united under the republic and the empire, and then breaking up into the kingdoms of modern Europe. The prophecy, therefore, by its two first facts, brings the history of the world’s kingdoms down to our own exact position, and at the same time it teaches, by the third, that there can be no further change before the advent. “In the days of these kings,” i.e. the European nations, “shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom,” i.e. the kingdom of the saints, of the Son of man in glory. With reference, therefore, to the political changes of the world, we are living under the last period of the last empire. There is to be no further shifting of the seat of power: strength and civilization will be found resting with Europe when the Son of man appears.

V. There is however one feature of society before the advent of which the same cannot be said; one class of prophecies which do not yet appear to have received their full accomplishment, viz. those which predict a state of war and tribulation.

We are taught by our Lord (Matthew, xxiv. 21, 22) that the time of the end shall be one of peculiar distress: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” The passage may have a primary and typical reference to the destruction of Jerusalem; but that this reference is not exclusive appears plainly from vv. 29 & 30: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken; and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven.” The tribulation of those days is here described as the last event on earth before the advent. So again in Luke, xvii. 33:—“Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.” The passage refers to “the day when the Son of man is revealed,” v. 30; and the words quoted show that the state of things will be of such a character as to involve the risk of martyrdom in the faithful confession of the truth. But the words of Daniel are more explicit still. “And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever. But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased;” Daniel, xii. 1–4. There can be no doubt as to the time here referred to: it is determined by four indisputable marks. The final deliverance of God’s chosen people; the resurrection; the glory of the saints; and the title given to it, “the time of the end.” Nor can there be any doubt as to the fact predicted. “There shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time.”

The words of our Lord again teach us that the commencement of these sorrows shall be war. “And ye shall hear of wars, and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows;” Matt, xxiv. 6–8. So the great crisis is described in the Revelation, as “the battle of Almighty God;” Rev. xvi. 14. But we are now at peace, nor is there at present any open combination of the ruling powers against the truth. Believers may have their hearts grieved by the national support of error, and here and there may be the outbreak of a persecuting spirit; but there is nothing yet of a great tribulation, nothing approaching to the fiery trial foretold in Daniel’s awful prophecy. All this is to come: how soon God only knows. Persecution is now condemned, but the last ten years have witnessed a wonderful political revolution in Rome’s favour; and it may be amply proved from facts as well as documents that she only waits the favouring day of power, to develope her old character, and make herself drunk in the life-blood of the saints. We are still at peace: but we heard last year of the cloud in the West, who shall say how soon the storm may gather, and burst in a thunder-clap over our heads? Europe is still at peace; but surely the mine is ready, the train is laid, and it needs but the death of one aged sovereign to produce an explosion which may convulse the very foundations of society. Then increased science will only produce unknown horrors, nor does it need any stretch of a lively imagination to foresee the onset of such days as those described by our Lord, when he said, “Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.”

For such a period believers should be ready. Every living man will be swept away by the flood, except the little, blessed, band, who have a fast “hold upon the anchor of the soul sure and stedfast, and that entereth into that within the veil.” Nothing then will stand but the strong reality of a living union with Jesus. Well, therefore, has the voice gone forth as the precursor of the conflict, “Behold I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame;” Rev. xvi. 15.

But, in what attitude shall society be found?

VI. According to the Scriptures, there shall be a general indifference to the subject of his return.

Of course, amongst the people of God, there will be many whose hearts God has led to the patient waiting for Christ. Some, in the fervour of an ardent hope, may carry their longings into enthusiasm; and others, in the calm sobriety of a Scriptural faith, like Simeon and Anna, will abide waiting for their Lord. But such cases will be the exception. The great mass of men will be altogether indifferent. They will care no more for our preaching than the men before the flood did for Noah’s: they will think it an idle and enthusiastic tale, and utterly disregard the whole matter.

Some indeed will scoff at it. They will challenge believers to the proof of it; they will point to the world’s unbroken course, and say “Where is the promise of his coming?” They will be ready to raise the sneer against the church’s hopes, and only notice the blessed tidings just to scoff at them as idle speculation. “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation;” 2 Pet. iii. 3 & 4.

But this scoffing spirit is not described as the general feature of society. It requires some attention even to scoff at God’s promises. But the general character of the world with reference to this great subject will be apathy; downright, dogged, indifference to the whole concern. Thus, in the parable of the talents, “they all slumbered and slept.” The wise virgins could sleep in calm peace, for they were ready; the foolish virgins could slumber only in apathy, for, being unprepared, they could only wake to perish. Thus our Lord says he “will come as a thief in the night,” when none give the thing a thought. The watchman may cry the hour, but the sleeper sleeps: he may sound the note of warning, but the sleeper sleeps: the thief may be within the chamber, but still he sleeps unmoved, unconscious, unprepared. Now this is the description which our Lord gives of the world before his coming. He says, men shall be found sleeping, a few blessed servants watching, but the mass sleeping, unconscious of his approach, unconcerned at his promises, unawakened even by the judgments that hurry on as the forerunners of his wrath.

The message then for the day is, “Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” It is impossible for any man of common observation to be blind to the fact that the great mass of men are still slumbering before God. Quick and energetic in their business, keen in their speculations, alive and alert as to the money market, they are profoundly insensible to the coming. They are content to leave the great point unsettled. They are hurrying before the judgment seat, and have not yet bowed before the cross. They are shortly to stand before the judge, and for aught they know, the whole weight of God’s curse still hangs over their unforgiven sin. There is no fellowship with a Saviour, no walking with God, no cleansing of guilt in the Lamb’s most precious blood, no eager wrestling with God that they may have a full assurance of their name written in the book of life. A free, full, complete, salvation is now offered to them; justification and restoration are promised graciously through the name of Jesus. They are warned of their danger, and invited to the Lord for safety. Yet they sleep, they slumber on; and if perchance they for a while raise their head to listen, it is either to scoff at the message, or to sink back into a slumber more fatal, more profound. Oh! that the Holy Ghost may condescend in mercy to awake those slumberers to activity and life! Oh! that the Spirit of the living God may himself break the spell of that fatal apathy! Oh! that in our beloved church we may see the fulfilment of the Apostle’s prayer:—“The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ!”