There is deep wisdom and mercy in this intentional silence. We have reason to thank Grod that the thing has been hidden from us. Uncertainty about the date of the Lord's return is calculated to keep believers in an attitude of constant expectation, and to preserve them from despoDdency. What a dreary prospect the early church would have had before it, if it had known for cer- tain that Christ would not return to earth for at least fifteen hundred years ! The hearts of men like Athan- asius, Chrysostorn, and Agustine, might well have sunk within them, if they had been aware of the centuries of darkness through which the world would pass, before their Master came back to take the kingdom. — What a quickening motive, on the other hand, true Christians have perpetually had, for a close walk with God ! They have never known, in any age, that their Master might not come suddenly to take account of his servants. This very uncertainty has supplied them with a reason for living always ready to meet Him.
There is one caution connected with the subject, which.
very man. As God He said to His disciples, ' Oar friend Lazarus sleepeth,' when no one had told Him. As man He asked the sis- ter of Lazarus, when He came to them at the end of His journey, ' Where have ye laid him ?' He who, when far off, knew that La- zarus was dead, how could He be ignorant, when present, of the place where the body of Lazarus was ? It is utterly improbable that He should have known the one thing, and been ignorant of the other. But the truth is, that He knew both as God, while He was ignorant of both as man. Therefore, in the same way, He both knew not and yet knew ' that day and that hour.' As man He knew not. As God He knew."
It is a sensible remark of Gualter, that pressing an excessively lite- ral interpretation of texts like this, is the sure way to revive old he- resies, and to bring into doubt, sometimes the divine, and sometimes the human nature of Christ.
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must not be overlooked. We must not allow the uncer- tainty of the time of our Lord's second advent to prevent our giving attention to the unfulfilled prophecies of Scrip- ture. This is a great delusion, but one into which, unhappily, many Christians fall. There is a wide dis- tinction to be drawn between dogmatical and positive assertions about elates, and a humble, prayerful searching into the good things yet to come. Against dogmatism about times and seasons, our Lord's words in this place are a standing caution. But as to the general profitable- ness of studying prophecy, we can have no plainer au- thority than the apostle Peter's words : " Ye do well that ye take heed to prophecy ;" and the apostle John's words in Kevelation : " Blessed is he that readeth." (2 Peter i. 19. Eev. i. 3.)
We learn, in the second place, from these verses, what are the 'practical duties of all true believers in the prospect of the second coming of Jesus Christ. Our Lord mentions three things, to which His people should attend. He tells them plainly that He is coming again one day, in power and great glory. He tells them at the same time, that the precise hour and date of that coming are not known. What then are His people to do ? In what position of mind are they to live ? They are to watch. They are to pray. They are to work.
We are to watch. We are to live always on our guard. We are to keep our souls in a wakeful, lively state, prepared at any time to meet our Master. We are to beware of any thing like spiritual lethargy, dulness, deadness, and torpor. The company, the employment of time, the society which induces us to forget Christ and