BOTH NEAR AND FAR AWAY.

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And yet we find him longing, waiting, looking, and watching too, for his Lord's appearing, as if it had been the very next event which was to happen. And truly, to him, it was the next event; for as "love is tormented with delays"-to use his own expressive language-insomuch that one day seems as a thousand years," so hope, which brings near the Beloved Object, makes a thousand years as one day." What, to them that love his appearing, are falls of Antichrist, and bright latter days, and whole millenniums of refreshing, in his absence? "Holy Lord," says Bernard somewhere," dost thou call that 'a little. while' in which I shall not see thee? O this little is a long little while !"

Thus the heart alternates between two very different and seemingly opposite views of the interval between its own day and the day of Christ's appearing. Now it seems long, and anon it seems short. "The bridegroom tarried," says the Lord himself, in the parable of the virgins. (Matt. xxv. 5.) "Yet a little while," says his apostle, "and the Coming One will come, and will not tarry." (Heb. x. 37.) (xpovisores O Xpovie.) To faith and hope it seems near, even at the doors; to love and longing desire it seems far, far away to the one it is but " a day," and then he will be here; to the other it is " a thousand years" -dreary period! In the one case, "we do with patience wait for it" in the other," tormented with delays," we cry out, with the Psalmist, "But thou, O Lord, how long?" Wilt thou not shovel Antichrist, ay, and the millennium too-yea, time and days together-out of the way, and "set thy head through these skies," that "so we may be ever with the Lord !"

To the above examples of this double way of viewing the Redeemer's coming, I make no apology for adding that of one but lately removed from the Church below, whose

mind seemed to be singularly imbued with the spirit of Christ, while his pen, on devotional subjects, flowed almost as the oracles of God. I allude to Robert Wodrow.* On the subject of united prayer among Christians, he drew up two Memorials (1841 and 1842), very precious, addressed" To the children of God scattered abroad throughout the world, with earnest desires that grace and mercy may be multiplied to them all through the knowledge of God our Saviour." On the topics for united prayer, having noticed among other things, in the first Memorial, "The conversion of God's ancient people as the most remarkable which is to take place until the coming of Christ, the outpouring of the Spirit on all flesh, the destruction of Antichrist, the utter abolition of idolatry, the universal overthrow of Satan's kingdom, the universal diffusion of the gospel and its blessings," he then says"Stretching beyond all these great events connected with the glory of the latter day, believers should look forward to the kingdom of glory itself, and pray for the coming of that day when Christ shall be revealed in flaming fire, 7 taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that 7 obey not the gospel, and when he shall be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe, as it will be then, and not till then, that the divine character and government will be vindicated, the Redeemer's enemies subdued, the number of the elect completed, and their bodies as well as souls redeemed and glorified with himself. Hence we are commanded to be looking for and

* Whose Address to the Children of Israel, prepared at the request of the Jews' Committee of the Church of Scotland, adopted by the General Assembly of that Church, and translated into nearly all the Continental, and some of the Oriental languages, has probably never been surpassed in point of scriptural character and unction, by any human composition.

BEARING OF THE FOREGOING FACTS.

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hasting unto the coming of the day of God; hence it is the closing prayer of the Church, Even so, come, Lord Jesus' and hence it should be often the prayer of believers, individually and collectively, Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of spices." "

In the second Memorial he says—

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"Habitually desiring the coming of the Lord, we shall be naturally led to abound in prayer for the accomplishment. of those objects which we have every reason, from the Word of God, to believe, must be fulfilled before that great final event takes place. Glorious things are spoken of the state of the Church in the latter day"-and then follows a charming description of its " millennial rest."

Now, let the reader bear in mind for what purpose we have extracted these passages. Not, certainly, to deter mine by human authority whether Christ's coming is to precede or to follow this latter day, but to meet the bold assertion, that on this last view of the Redeemer's coming it is not possible to watch for it. Such assertions seem better met by facts than by arguments. And unless it is to be alleged that the gifted and holy men whose language we have quoted did not understand their own exercises, the assertion, I think, must be given up as untenable.

But the heart of the fallacy has yet to be reached. This novel theory of watching is founded, as I proceed to show, on a very narrow induction of Scripture passages, and stands opposed to the spirit of a large and very important class of divine testimonies.

4. It seems to be taken for granted that the New Testament has but one future event to hold up to the Church and to the world, namely, the coming of Christ, and even but one aspect of that event, namely, its nearness and the corresponding duty of watching for it. But nothing can be a

greater mistake. We have seen already for what purposes the New Testament holds forth the coming of Christ, both to saints and to sinners. But other purposes had to be served besides these, which have drawn forth truths of quite another order; and if the one set of passages, taken by themselves, might seem to imply that Christ might come to morrow, or any day (as the phrase is), even in apostolic times, there are whole classes of passages which clearly show that the reverse of this was the mind of the Spirit.

I refer to those Scriptures which announce the work to be done, and the extensive changes to come over the face of the Church and of Society, between the two advents.

"All power," said the Redeemer as he was leaving the world, "is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach," or make disciples of "all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."* (Matt. xxviii. 18-20.)

Now is it conceivable, that any primitive Christian should persuade himself that all nations might be thus discipled, baptized, and brought under the discipline of Christ's laws, in his own lifetime, or within the largest space of time that would admit of his watching (according to this new theory) for the coming of Christ to wind all up ?

Again, the parables regarding the gospel kingdom manifestly bear in the same direction. "The field," which was to be sown both with tares and with wheat, is THE WORLD" ( KOσμos): that is to say, a world-wide kingdom is to be formed, embracing the genuine and the false-hearted

αιών

* It makes no difference to our present argument, whether awv here be rendered "world" or "age;" as it is agreed on all hands that the period or state of things denoted by this word terminates with the second coming of Christ,

EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD.

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subjects of Christ under one visible name; both are to grow together until the harvest ;" and the harvest is the end of the world,* when "the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." The same truth is taught in the parable of the net cast into the sea, that gathered of every kind; and the same period is fixed for the severance of the good from the bad-" the end of the world." Similar is the import of the parable of the mustard seed, and of the leaven-holding forth the truth as it is in Jesus, in its progressive advancement, till, like a tree springing from the least of seeds, it ultimately overshadows"the world;" and, like leaven, working its way through the mass of human society, it at length leavens it all.

And could any intelligent Christian in apostolic timeswhile the gospel had scarce a footing in the world, and its little inch of ground had to be contested even unto blood-rise from the study of these parables with the persuasion that the whole world might be thus overshadowed, thus leavened, thus externally subjugated to Christ, and the second advent arrive-all in his own lifetime, or even in many lifetimes?

I might advert here to those passages which announce the judicial transfer of the kingdom of God from the Jews to the Gentiles, the whole tenor of which was fitted to teach even a primitive Christian, that its duration in Gentile hands, ere the Jews should again be brought in, would bear some proportion to its duration in Jewish hands, before the admission of the Gentiles.

"The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof." (Matt. xxi. 43.) "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." (Luke xxi. 24.)

• See note on preceding page.