They should resolve by God's 'grace not to sleep at their post. That text of St. Paul deserves many a thought : " let us not sleep as do others ; but let us watch and be sober." (1 Thess. v. 6.)
True Christians ought to live like good servants, whose master is not at home. They should strive to be always ready for their master's return. They should never give way to the feeling, " my Lord delayeth his coming.'^ They should seek to keep their hearts in such a frame, that, whenever Christ appears, they may at once give Him a warm and loving reception. There is a vast depth in that saying, " Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing." We may well doubt whether we are true believers in Jesus, if we are not ready at any time to have our faith changed into sight.
Let us close the chapter with solemn feelings. The things we have just been reading call loudly for great searchings of heart. Let us seek to make sure that we are in Christ, and have an ark of safety when the day of wrath breaks on the Avorld. Let us strive to live that we may be pronounced " blessed" at the last, and not cast off for evermore. Not least, let us dismiss from our minds the common idea that unfulfilled prophecy is a speculative and not a practical thing. If the things we have been considering are not practical, there is no such thing as practical religion at all. Well might St. John say, ^' Every man that hath this hope m him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." (1 John iii. 2.)