The ways of God are uniform. And when we think of the dangers of a deceitful world, and a still more deceitful heart, how great is the blessing to believe that it is not possible for the snares of the world, or the enmity of Satan, to ruin those who have set their faith upon the rock of Christ! St. Paul asks, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ ?" Shall that to which Christians were exposed during the siege of Jerusalem, "shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword ?"" And if these could not separate Christians from attachment to their Saviour, much less should they separate their Saviour's love from them. Such trials would rather incline him still more to favour them; to give them inward support in proportion to their outward difficulties, and enable them to endure unto the end, that so enduring, they might be saved. "Shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night to him, though he bear long with them?" "For even the hairs of their head are all numbered." The promise can never fail, "Because he has set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him."

7 Rom, viii. 35.

LECTURE LX.

SUDDENNESS OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM, AND OF THE END OF THE WORLD. -A STATE OF PREPARATION.

MATT. xxiv. 29–51.

29. 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:

30. 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 with power and great glory.

31. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.1

32. Now learn a parable of the fig-tree: When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is night :

33. So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.

34. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

35. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but

shall not pass away.

my

words

He shall send his messengers, his ministers, to every quarter of the world; they shall sound the glad tidings of the gospel, and gather together in one fold, under one shepherd, "such as shall be saved."

The preceding verses had described the tribulation which should attend the siege of Jerusalem. The utter destruction of the city follows. This is represented in terms, which, at first sight, might seem to belong to the dissolution of the world itself. But we find that it had been customary with the sacred writers to predict the like calamities, by the use of like expressions. Such are those words of Ezekiel, (xxx. 7, 8,) foretelling the desolation of Egypt." And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heavens, and make the stars thereof dark: I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord God." Joel also writes, in reference to the event now approaching, (Joel ii. 30,) "I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come."

993

Still, there would be many circumstances in common, between the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the world, which render the like description applicable to both. Especially its suddenness: the unprepared state in which the great mass of the people should be found. Its certainty must be taken on trust: the exact period would never be revealed.

36. But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

3. See also Jerem. iv. 23, &c.; Amos. v. 20; Zeph. i. 14.

37. But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

38. 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,

39. And knew not, until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man

be.

40. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

41. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

42. Watch, therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.

Those who pay no heed to Revelation, are, of course, occupied in earthly things, and will be so to the end. But even in those who believe, there is a perpetual conflict to be maintained between the passing concerns of time, and the more important but unseen interests of eternity. Men must be eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage: some must be employed in the field, and others in domestic services. These are not sins, but duties--but these duties become sins, these lawful things unlawful, by the degree in which they engross the mind: the seed of life is choked with the cares and the pleasures of the world, and "brings no fruit to perfection." St. Paul has given the rule; "Brethren, the time is short: it remaineth that both they that have wives, be as though they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world,

as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away."

Our Lord continues to enforce this in words, which are meant to carry on our thoughts from his first coming, when Jerusalem should fall, to his second coming, when heaven and earth shall pass K away, and make room for "new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."

43. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken

up.

44. Therefore be ye also ready for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.

45. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?

46. Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.

47. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.

48. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;

49. And shall begin to smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken ;

50. The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, 51. And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The resemblance, in many points, between an I overthrow such as that of Jerusalem, and the end of the world, leads to a transition in our Lord's discourse from one event to the other. Of either day