A Concise View of the Evidences of the Christian Religion
Page 1
Review and Herald
Feb 12, 1861
Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 12, 1861
A Concise View of the Evidences of the Christian Religion.
By J. Fletcher
BY J. FLETCHER.
1. THE sacred penmen, the prophets and apostles, were holy, excellent men, and would not; artless, illiterate men, and therefore could not, lay the horrible scheme of deluding mankind. The hope of gain did not influence them, for they were self-denying men, that left all to follow a Master, who had not where to lay his head; and whose grand initiating maxim was, Except a man forsake all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. They were so disinterested that they secured nothing on earth but hunger and nakedness, stocks and prisons, racks and tortures; which indeed was all they could, or did expect, in consequence of Christ's express declarations. Neither was a desire of honor the motive of their actions; for their Lord himself was treated with the utmost contempt, and had more than once assured them, that they should certainly share the same fate. Besides, they were humble men, not above working as mechanics for a coarse maintenance, and so little desirous of human regard, that they exposed to the world the meanness of their birth and occupations, their great ignorance and scandalous falls.
Add to this, that they were so many, and lived at such distance of time and place from each other, that had they been impostors, it would have been impracticable for them to contrive and carry on a forgery without being detected. And as they neither would, nor could deceive the world; so they neither could nor would be deceived themselves; for they were days, months, and years, eye and ear witnesses of the things which they relate; and when they had not the fullest evidence of important facts, they insisted upon new proofs, and even upon sensible demonstrations; as, for instance, Thomas, in the matter of our Lord's resurrection. John xx, 25. And to leave us no room to question their sincerity, most of them joyfully sealed the truth of their doctrines with their own blood. Did so many and such marks of veracity, ever meet in any other authors?
2. But even while they lived, they confirmed their testimony by a variety of miracles, wrought in divers places, and for a number of years; sometimes before thousands of their enemies, as the miracles of Christ and his disciples; sometimes before hundreds of thousands, as those of Moses. These miracles were so well known and attested, that when both Christ and Moses appealed to their authenticity, before their bitterest opposers, mentioning the persons upon whom, as well as the particular times when, and the places where, they had been performed, the facts were never denied, but passed over in silence, or maliciously attributed to the Prince of the Devils. By such a pitiful slander as this, Porphyry, Hierocles, Celsus, and Julian the Apostate, those learned and inveterate enemies of Christianity, endeavored (as the Pharisees had done before them) to sap the arguments founded upon the miracles of Christ and his disciples. So sure then as God would never have displayed his arm, in the most astonishing manner, for the support of imposture, the sacred penmen had their commission from the Almighty, and their writings are his lively oracles.
3. Reason itself dictates, that nothing but the plainest matter of fact could induce so many thousands of prejudiced and persecuting Jews, to embrace the humbling, self-denying doctrines of the cross, which they so much despised and abhorred. Nothing but the clearest evidence, arising from undoubted truth, could make multitudes of lawless, luxurious heathens receive, follow, and transmit to posterity the doctrines and writings of the apostles; especially at a time when the vanity of their pretensions to miracles, and the gift of tongues, could be so easily discovered had they been impostors—at a time when the profession of Christianity exposed persons of all ranks to the greatest contempt, and most imminent danger. In this respect, the case of the primitive Christians widely differed from that of Mahomet's followers;
for those, who adhered to the warlike, violent impostor, saved their lives and properties, or attained to honor, by their new, easy, and flesh-pleasing religion: but those, who devoted themselves to the meek, self-denying, crucified Jesus, were frequently spoiled of their goods, and cruelly put to death; or if they escaped with their lives, were looked upon as the very dregs of mankind.
Add to this, that some of the most profound parts of the scriptures, were addressed to the inhabitants of polite Greece, and triumphant Rome, among whom philology and literature, with the fine arts and sciences, were in the highest perfection; and who, consequently, were less liable to be the dupes of forgery and imposture. On the contrary, gross ignorance overspread those countries, where Mahomet first broached his absurd opinions, and propagated them with the sword: A sure sign this, that the sacred writers did not, like that impostor, avail themselves of the ignorance, weakness, and helplessness of their followers, to impose falsehood upon them.
4. When the authenticity of the miracles was attested by thousands of living witnesses, religious rites were instituted, and performed by hundreds of thousands, agreeably to scripture injunctions, in order to perpetuate that authenticity. And these solemn ceremonies have ever since been kept up in all parts of the world; the passover by the Jews, in remembrance of Moses' miracles in Egypt; and the Eucharist by Christians, as a memorial of Christ's death, and the miracles that accompanied it, some of which are recorded by Phlegon and Trallian, an heathen historian.
5. The Scriptures have not only the external sanction of miracles, but the internal stamp of the Omniscient God, by a variety of prophecies, some of which have already been most exactly confirmed by the events predicted; witness the rise and fall of the four grand monarchies according to Daniel's prophecy, chap. ii, and vii; and the destruction of the city and temple of Jerusalem, foretold by Christ, Matt. xxiv, 2, while others are every day fulfilled in the face of infidels, particularly the persecution of the real disciples of Christ in our times, as well as in all ages (see Matt. x, 22, 35; John xv, 20 and Gal. iv, 29.), and the present miserable state of the Jews, so exactly described by Moses, above three thousand years ago. See Deut. xxviii, 65.98
6. Sometimes the plainest prophecies, the most public miracles, and the annals of kingdoms, well known when those books were first received, wonderfully concur to demonstrate their authenticity. Take one instance out of many: A prophet out of Judah, above 300 years before the event, thus foretold the pollution of Jeroboam's altar at Bethel, before Jeroboam himself, who was attended by his priests, his courtiers, and no doubt a vast number of idolatrous worshipers: O altar, altar, thus says the Lord, Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name, who shall burn men's bones upon thee; and this is the sign: Behold, this very day the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are upon it scattered. King Jeroboam, inflamed with anger, stretched forth his hand against the man of God, saying to his guards, Lay hold on him. But his extended hand was dried up so that he could not pull it in again to him. The rending of the altar, and scattering of the fire, instantly took place; and the capital prophecy was exactly fulfilled by pious king Josiah, as you may see by comparing 1 Kings xiii, 1, &c., with 2 Kings xxiii, 15, &c. Can we reasonably suppose that books containing accounts of such public events, would have been received as divine by a divided people, if their authenticity had not been confirmed by indubitable matter of fact? Nay, is it not as absurd to assert it as it would be to affirm that the offices for the 5th of November, and the 30th of January were forged by crafty priests; and that the Papists, Puritans and Royalists of the last century, agreed to impose upon the world the history of the gunpowder plot, and of king Charles's decollation, with which these parts of the liturgy are so inseparably connected?
7. This scattered, despised people, the irreconcilable enemies of the Christians, keep with amazing care the Old Testament, full of the prophetic history of Jesus Christ, and by that means afford the world a striking proof that the New Testament is true; and Christians in their turn show that the Old Testament is abundantly confirmed and explained by the New. The Earl of Rochester, the great wit of the last century, was so struck with this proof, that upon reading Isa. liii., with floods of penitential tears, he lamented his former infidelity, and warmly embraced the faith, which he had so publicly ridiculed.
8. To say nothing of the venerable antiquity, and wonderful preservation of those books, some of which are by far the most ancient in the world; to pass over the inimitable simplicity, or true sublimity of their style; they carry with them such characters of truth, as command the respect of every unprejudiced reader.
They open to us the mystery of the creation, the nature of God, angels, and man, the end for which we were made, the origin and connection of moral and natural evil, the vanity of this world and the glory of the next. There we see inspired shepherds, tradesmen, and fishermen, surpassing as much the greatest philosophers, as these did the herd of mankind, both in meekness of wisdom and sublimity of doctrine. . . . There we admire the purest morality in the world, agreeable to the dictates of sound reason, confirmed by the witness which God has placed for himself in our breast, and exemplified in the lives of men of like passions with ourselves. There we discover a vein of ecclesiastical history and theological truth, consistently running through a collection of sixty-six different books, written by various authors in different languages, during the space of above 1500 years. There we find, as in a deep and pure spring, all the genuine drops and streams of spiritual knowledge, which can possibly be met with in the largest libraries. There the workings of the human heart are described, in a manner that demonstrates the inspiration of the Searcher of hearts. There we have a particular account of all our spiritual maladies, with their various symptoms, and the method of a certain cure; a cure that has been witnessed by millions of martyrs and departed saints, and is now enjoyed by thousands of good men, who would account it an honor to seal the truth of the Scriptures with their own blood. There you meet with the noblest strains of penitential and joyous devotion, adapted to the dispositions and states of all travelers to Sion. And there you read those awful threatenings and cheering promises, which are daily fulfilled in the consciences of men, to the admiration of believers, and the astonishment of attentive infidels.
9. The wonderful efficacy of the Scriptures is another proof that they are of God. When they are faithfully opened by his ministers, and powerfully applied by his Spirit, they wound and heal, they kill and make alive, they alarm the careless, turn or enrage the wicked, direct the lost, support the tempted, strengthen the weak, comfort mourners, and nourish pious souls. As the woman of Samaria said of Jesus, Come, see a man that told me all that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? a good man can say of the Bible, Come, see a book that told me all that was in my heart, and acquainted me with the various trials and dangers I have met with in my spiritual travels; a book where I have found those truths, which, like a divinely-tempered sword, have cut my way through all the snares and forces of my spiritual adversaries; and by whose directions my soul has happily entered the paradise of divine and brotherly love. Is not this the book of God?
10. To conclude, it is exceedingly remarkable, that the more humble and holy people are, the more they read, admire, and value the Scriptures, and on the contrary, the more self-conceited, worldly-minded, and wicked, the more they neglect, despise and asperse them.
As for the objections which are raised against their perspicuity and consistency, those who are both pious and learned, know that they are generally founded on pre-possession, and the want of understanding in spiritual things, or on our ignorance of several customs, idioms, and circumstances, which were perfectly known when those books were written. Frequently also the immaterial error arises merely from a wrong punctuation, or a mistake of copiers, printers, or translators; as the daily discovery of pious critics, and ingenuous confessions of unprejudiced inquirers, abundantly prove.
To the preceding arguments, I beg leave to add the following queries: Do not disbelievers, by supposing that the Scriptures are a forged book, and consequently that Christianity is a false religion, run upon the very rocks which they seem so afraid of? And may they not be charged with indirectly setting their seal to opinions, far more incredible than those which they reject?
1. O ye disputers of this world, if ye believe that Moses and Jesus Christ, St. Peter and St. Paul, publicly worked sham miracles for years, in various cities and countries, before thousands of their sharp-sighted opposers, without being ever detected in any of their tricks; might you not as reasonably believe that thousands of shrewd men were at once turned into stupid asses?
2. If you believe that the gospel is the production of human deceit, and yet, that in the prodigious number of apostates once concerned in carrying on the amazing villainy, such as Judas, Demas, Simon Magus, Alexander the coppersmith, who did St. Paul much evil, &c., not one was ever found, that would prove the forgery; might you not as reasonably believe, that if there were two violent parties in a state, and that one of them had been guilty of some egregious villainy, which was known to many of the other party, yet that none of the latter could be prevailed upon to disclose and prove it to the world?
3. You believe that the miracles and resurrection of Christ, together with the gifts of the Holy Ghost, were nothing but enthusiastical or knavish pretensions; and yet you are forced to grant that thousands of Jews, strongly attached to their religion, amazingly averse to that of Jesus, and guilty of persecuting him unto death, took him openly for their Saviour a few weeks after they had seen him publicly scourged; and in the very city in sight of which he had just been crucified between two thieves. Now is not this as absurd as to believe that if a few fishermen cried up the last person hanged in London for a notorious forgery, and if they affirmed that he was the Son of God, appealing to a great number of miracles supposed to have been wrought by him in the squares and hospitals of the metropolis, and especially in St. Peter's churchyard, and maintaining that some of them had been acknowledged genuine by the great council of the nation; they could, by such notorious lies, engage thousands of citizens, to put all their trust in the villain hanged at their special request?
4. You believe that Christianity is a gross imposture; and yet you cannot deny that thousands of learned Romans and wise Greeks, who agreed to despise the Jews above all other men, took for their Saviour that very Jesus, of whom his own countrymen had been ashamed, and whom they had crucified as an impostor. Is not this as absurd as to believe that thousands of wise Englishmen and sensible Frenchmen could be induced by the absurd tale of two or three Hottentots, to worship a certain Hottentot whom the whole nation of Hottentots had condemned to be hanged, as being more worthy of an ignominious death than the bloody ringleader of a seditious mob?
5. If you believe with some infidels, that the History of Christ is a mere fable, and that there never was such an extraordinary person, you believe that the heathens, the Jews, the Mahometans, have agreed with the Christians, their sworn enemies, to carry on a most amazing imposture. For Pliny, Tacitus, Lucian, and Suetonius, heathen authors, who lived soon after Christ, make express mention of him; as do also Mahomet, many of the Rabbies, and Julian the Emperor, that powerful and crafty apostate, who not only never denied Christ's existence, but openly acknowledged that Paul, Mark, Matthew, and Peter, were the authors of the gospels and epistles, which bear their name. Now is not this as ridiculous as to believe that the Pope, the Mufti, and the inquisitors, have laid their heads with Messrs. Voltaire, Hume, and Rousseau, to favor a forgery subversive of popery, Mahometanism, and infidelity?99
6. If you deny the authenticity of the four gospels, which are the only ancient histories that we have of our Saviour; and yet believe that there was such a personage as Jesus Christ, whose fame so spread through the Roman empire, that in less than 330 years, he was not only reckoned superior to the Roman emperor, but to Jupiter himself; and that nevertheless not one historian, during all that time, gave the world a particular account of him (which must be the case if the four gospels are a forgery); might you not as reasonably suppose that if a blazing meteor appeared in our day and eclipsed the stars, the moon, and the sun itself, no astronomer for several centuries would take particular notice of so wonderful a phenomenon?
7. If the gospel is a delusion, you believe that St. Paul, who was a man of sense, learning and intrepidity, was seduced by—nobody, to preach for near thirty years, with astonishing zeal and matchless hardships, an imposture, against the abettors of which he had just before breathed nothing but threatenings and slaughter?
8. The instantaneous conversion of thousands was wrought by means of public appeals to notorious matter of fact. Hear the language of the apostles to the Jews: This ye yourselves know. Acts ii, 24. Ye know the things done through all Judea. Acts x, 37, 38. The king knoweth these things. This thing was not done in a corner. Acts xxvi, 26. Now if Christianity is not founded upon indubitable facts, might you not as well believe that twelve men broke loose from Bedlam, brought last year thousands of deists over to Christianity, by saying to them, “Ye know”—what ye are perfect strangers to; that is, “Ye know”—that we are a pack of Bedlamites?
9. If the gospel is forged, you believe that the Corinthians, &c., handed down to posterity, as a sacred treasure, epistles where St. Paul mentions their amazing conversion from gross immoralities; congratulates them about the spiritual or miraculous gifts, in which they abounded [1 Cor. xii, 1], and gives them particular directions how to use the gift of tongues to edification, when yet they were totally unacquainted with any such things?
10. If you say that the apostles were fools, you must believe that foolish fishermen laid a scheme with so much wisdom, and carried it on with so much art as to deceive multitudes of Greeks noted for their acuteness, and numbers of Romans famous for their prudence. Might you not as well believe that twelve poor, unarmed idiots, once combined to take the strongest towns in Europe, and accomplished their strange design by means that strike the profoundest politicians with astonishment?
11. If you affirm that the apostles were cheats and liars, you run into as great a difficulty, for you must believe that the greatest knaves that ever existed, contrary to their own principles and advantage, went through the world, exposing themselves to the greatest hardships and severest tortures unto death, to recommend both by their example and precepts, the strictest piety towards God, and the most scrupulous honesty towards man; perpetually denouncing eternal destruction to cheats and hypocrites, and the torments of a lake that burneth with fire and brimstone, to every one who loveth or maketh a lie. Would it be more absurd to believe that the twelve greatest epicures in England, have for a course of years fulfilled a mutual agreement of preaching day and night, abstinence and fasting through the three kingdoms, merely to have the pleasure of starving to death for their pains?
12. To conclude: If the gospel (and consequently the Scripture) is an imposture, you suppose that some poor Galilean fishermen, only by means of an absurd lie, which they told without wit, and wrote without elegance, foiled the multitude of the Jewish and Pagan priests, who had prejudice, custom, possession, learning, oratory, wealth, laws, governors, and emperors on their side; yea, and truth also, upon your principles, at least when they decried the gospel as a cheat. Would it be more ridiculous to believe that David killed Goliath with a grain of sand, and cut off his head with a spire of grass; or that our sailors sink men-of-war with a puff of breath, while our soldiers batter down ramparts with snow-balls?
O ye sons of worldly wisdom, drop your unjust prejudices, candidly weigh both sides of the question, and you will soon see that in rejecting the gospel as an imposture, you display a far greater degree of credulity, than we do in cordially receiving it.
LEAVE ALL TO GOD.
By Anton Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick
BY ANTON ULRICH, DUKE OF BRUNSWICK, A. D. 1667.
Leave all to God,
Forsaken one, and stay thy tears;
For the Highest knows thy pain,
Sees thy sufferings and thy fears.
Thou shalt not wait his help in vain—
Leave all to God!
Be still, and trust;
For his strokes are strokes of love,
Thou must for thy profit bear;
He thy filial fear would move.
Trust thy Father's loving care—
Be still, and trust!
Know, God is near;
Though thou think him far away,
Though his mercy long have slept,
He will come, and not delay,
When his child enough hath wept—
For God is near!
Oh! teach him not
When and how to hear thy prayers;
Never doth our God forget.
He the cross who longest bears,
Finds his sorrows' bounds are set—
Then, teach him not!
If thou love him,
Walking truly in his ways;
Then no trouble, cross, or death,
E'er shall silence faith and praise.
All things serve thee here beneath,
If thou love God!
BOARDMAN'S REMARKABLE DELIVERANCE.
REV. RICHARD BOARDMAN related a short time before his death, the following remarkable interposition of divine providence in his behalf:
“I preached one evening at Mould, in Flintshire, and next morning set out for Parkgate. After riding some miles I asked a man if I was on the road to that place. He answered, ‘Yes, but you will have some sands to go over, and unless you ride fast you will be in danger of being inclosed by the tide.’ It then began to snow to such a degree that I could scarcely see a step of my way. I got to the sands and pursued my journey over them for some time as rapidly as I could; but the tide then came in and surrounded me on every side, so that I could neither proceed nor turn back, and to ascend the perpendicular rocks was impossible. In this situation I commanded myself to God, not having the least expectation of escaping death. In a little time I perceived two men running down the hill on the other side of the water, and by some means they got a boat and came to my relief just as the sea had reached my knees as I sat on my saddle. They took me into the boat, the mare swimming by our side till we reached the land.
“While we were in the boat one of the men said, ‘Surely, sir, God is with you.’ I answered, ‘I trust he is.’ The man replied, ‘I know he is,’ and then related the following circumstance:
“ “Last night I dreamed that I must go to the top of such a hill. When I awoke, the dream made such an impression on my mind that I could not rest. I therefore went and called upon this man to accompany me. When we came to the place we saw nothing more than usual. However I begged him to go with me to another hill at a small distance, and there we saw your distressed situation.
“When we got ashore, I went with my two friends to a public house not far distant from where we landed; and as we were relating the wonderful providence, the landlady said: ‘This day month we saw a gentleman just in your situation; but before we could hasten to his relief, he plunged into the sea, supposing, as we concluded, that his horse would swim to the shore; but they both sank, and were drowned together.’ I gave my deliverers all the money I had, which I think was about eighteen pence, and tarried all night at the hotel. Next morning I was not a little embarrassed how to pay my reckoning for the want of cash, and begged my landlord would keep a pair of silver spurs until I should redeem them; but he answered, ‘The Lord bless you sir, I would not take a farthing from you for the world.’ After some serious conversation with the friendly people, I bade them farewell and re-commenced my journey, rejoicing in the Lord, and praising him for his great salvation.”
MORALITY vs. RELIGION.
Multitudes pride themselves upon their morality. They make their boast of never having injured any one, of never having wronged a fellow even of a penny. They say they live up to the golden rule; they do as they would be done by. This is all well enough, as far as it goes; but it is not going half far enough.
If we were only creatures of time, then religion would not be needed to prepare us for eternity. If we were under no obligations to God, then we might only concern ourselves with the duties we owe to one another. If we were only to live in this life, then morality might be the one thing needful.
Morality comprises the duties you owe to your fellows; religion includes those you owe to God as well as man. A man may live a moral life and yet be without God and without hope in the world. To be a Christian, a man must be a moral man; and yet a man may be moral and not religious. Morality comprehends only a part of religion; religion comprehends the whole of morality and much more. “The highest principle in social morals is a just regard to the rights of men, while the first principle in religion is a just regard to the rights of God.”
Sin is a violation of God’s law. Sin is the transgression of law. Men are sinners because they disobey God’s commands. Where there is no law there is no sin. A man who refuses to obey any of God’s requirements is guilty, no matter how upright, no matter how moral, no matter how just in his dealings with his fellow men. A moral man may be as great a sinner in the sight of God as a murderer!
A man’s morality cannot recommend him to the mercy, to the clemency of the Judge Eternal; nay, verily, it will only increase his guilt, only make more certain his condemnation.
To stand at the bar of God, and plead your morality, would be to insult the Almighty to his face! It would be to say in effect: I had more respect, more regard for my fellows than I had for you. I rendered them their dues, but did not pay you yours. I kept their laws, but violated yours. I never robbed them, but I did you. Who can fail to see, from this standpoint, the sinfulness of the most moral man that ever lived? When David, having committed those two great crimes of adultery and murder, was led to repentance, he did not say, I have sinned against Uriah, though most grievously and awfully true. But with the great and dreadful God before his eyes, he said, “Against THEE, THEE ONLY have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight.” When Joseph was tempted to adultery, he did not say, How can I do this great evil and sin against Potiphar? No, it was, “How can I do this great evil, and sin against God?” As long as you neglect a single duty; as long as you refuse to engage in good works, every hour you refuse to obey God’s command to repent, to believe, to be baptized, to obey, to confess him before men, you live in sin, though you may be blameless in your intercourse with mankind. It is not for you to claim exemption from judgment, on the score of obedience, fancied or real, to the minor matters of the law, while living in acknowledged violation of its first and great command: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.—Parish Visitor
A CHILD'S FAITH.
A GOOD lady, who had long known and loved the Saviour, was ill with a lingering disease. Her poor, frail body began to draw down the spirit with it, and she could not think or feel or pray as she once did. As she could not see Jesus now, she began to fear that she had never seen him. This made her very sad, and often she would shed tears and say, "Jesus hear me, Jesus pity me!"
She had a dear little daughter, who would sometimes throw her arms around her neck and ask, "What ails you mother?" But she was too young to understand her case, and thought her grief was because no physician could cure her. One day the lady sat looking out upon the glorious works of God—the lovely landscape, the deep sea and the cloud-flecked sky, and wishing that He who made and rules the world would only stoop to pity her. Her little M. came into the room just then, with an open book in her hand. Her face was bright with smiles, and her blue eyes lighted by some joyful news. "Oh! mother, dear!" she cried, "I've found out a way in which you can be cured, and it is such an easy way! I was looking for my Sunday-School lesson, and I found this place. It tells of a woman who was very sick indeed. She had spent all her100money trying to be made well, but everything she did only made her worse. Just think, mother, she had been sick twelve years! Well, I suppose she had heard about Jesus, for she went where he was, and believed that he could heal her if he pleased; so she slipped softly behind him, touched the hem of his garment, and whispered to herself that 'doing only that would make her well again!' And Jesus was pleased, mother, and he told her to take comfort, for she should be healed. And so she was. Can't you touch the hem of his garment too?"
The lady looked in wonder at the little teacher God had sent her, and bursting into tears, said, "Oh! my darling, that woman could see Jesus!"
"But mother, you have always told me that he is just as really near me as if I could see and touch him."
Thus were the lessons of faith which this suffering mother had given beside the little crib at the evening hour, returned with bountiful interest into her own bosom; and she said, "Blessed Jesus, although I cannot see I will trust. I will put forth my hand, as did the woman in the gospel, and touch the hem of thy garment. I will put my trembling hand in thine, to be led and guided by thy will even through the darkness."—Child at Home.
THOUGHTS ON THE ADVENT.
(Continued)
We now approach a division of our subject which is of the most thrilling interest. As the result of the foregoing investigation, we have found the most unequivocal testimony of scripture that such an event is literally before the world as the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven, attended with a power and glory, before which the enemies of the Lord shall consume, islands and mountains be removed out of their places, and suns and systems pale and fade away. The next step in the inquiry is, When may we expect this awfully glorious event? As no subject has greater claims upon the liveliest interest of all classes of men, than that of the personal advent of the King of kings and Lord of lords, so no division of this subject can present more of such claims than that of the time of its accomplishment. Are mankind to know when the great crisis is drawing near, when it is nigh at hand? To be still more definite, Are we sustained by any scriptural warrant in looking for this event in the generation in which we live?
In looking at the past through the examples recorded for our admonition and learning, in the word of God, we see one uniform feature running through all his dealings with the world: it is that no judgment comes unheralded, and no people fall therein unwarned. The Lord keeps back nothing from his saints which it is needful and profitable for them to know. Of a coming flood he gives them warning, and instructs them how to escape; from the doomed cities of the plain, he hastens them away by the hand of angels; and when, in the commencement of the gospel dispensation, the time came that the rebellious city which had rejected the Son of God, should be itself rejected and given over to the abomination of desolation, our Lord instructs his disciples when to make their escape from that desolating power. But a greater judgment is involved in the coming of the Lord than in any event which has previously transpired in this world's history; greater consequences are involved therein; and hence the greater necessity that we should know of its approach, and how and when to seek a position of preparation and safety.
Many exhortations are given us in view of the solemnities of the great day of the Lord. "Watch," says the Saviour, "for you know not what hour your Lord doth come." Matt. xxiv, 42. "Be ye also ready." Verse 44. Again, "Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find" giving his household meat in due season. Verse 46. In what Mark has recorded in reference to the same event, we find these words: "Take ye heed, watch and pray; for ye know not when the time is." Chap. xiii, 33. Again, "Watch ye therefore . . . lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping." Verses 35, 36. Luke says, "And take heed to yourselves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares." Chap. xxi, 34. But "as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all." Chap. xvii, 27. Matthew says that "they knew not, till the flood came," &c. The apostle Paul tells us [Heb. ix, 28] that unto them that look for him the Lord shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation; clearly implying that it is necessary to be looking for him, in order to be prepared to share in the salvation which he comes to bring. The faithful Witness, to the church in Sardis [Rev. iii, 3], says, "If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come upon thee as a thief and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee."
From all these scriptures we see that a special preparation is requisite for this great event; hence the necessity that we know in what age of the world it is to transpire; and of this necessity we have the best assurance that the Lord will not be unmindful, nor leave this lack of his people unsupplied. The testimony of the lively oracles on this point is as direct as it is cheering. In Amos iii, 7, we read, "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret to his servants the prophets." Noah knew when to build the ark and when to enter it; Lot knew when to flee from Sodom; the disciples knew when to make their escape from the fated city of Jerusalem; and the language of the apostle to the disciples in the last days is, "But ye brethren are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief." 1 Thess. v, 4. We are therefore treading on no forbidden ground, and prying into no unlawful secret, by instituting an inquiry on this point.
Should the eye of an opponent rest upon these lines, as will, no doubt, at this stage of the investigation, be revolving complacently in his mind that cherished text by which many before him have sought to quiet their conscience and dispel their fears; namely, "Of that day and hour knoweth no man." Matt. xxiv, 36. But we can suggest to our hasty friend that we accord to this text as literal an import, and as broad a meaning as he has ever thought of doing. We neither pretend to know, nor are we endeavoring to make known the day or hour of this event. But because we know not this does it follow that we are to know nothing about it whatever? Let us ask the objector one question: Do you believe that this language has reference to the coming of the Lord, and the end of the world? Most certainly it does, is the reply. Well then we want no further admission from you; for in this very discourse, and in this very connection, only a few verses before, we have these words from the lips of the great Teacher: "Now learn a parable of the fig tree: when his branch is yet tender and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh; so likewise ye, when ye see all these things [the signs previously mentioned], know that it [margin—he, Christ] is near even at the doors."
We cannot leave this point without a passing notice of a sophism very common with many of our opponents; they tell us that Matt. xxiv, applies to the destruction of Jerusalem, and yet are ever ready to apply one declaration of that chapter, that which speaks of not knowing the day or hour, to our views of the coming of Christ and the end of the world. But stop! If that chapter refers exclusively to the destruction of Jerusalem, then, of course, the verse in question also refers to the same event, and is merely a declaration that no man knoweth the day or hour of the destruction of Jerusalem. But if, on the other hand this verse is spoken in reference to the end of the world and the coming of the Lord, as they are seemingly so impatient to interpret it, then assuredly the context applies to the same; and that gives us instructions by which we may know when the great event is nigh, as certainly as we discern the approach of summer by the budding of the fig tree.