The second personal advent of Christ is the real fulfil- ment of these words. Of the precise day and hour of that advent we know nothing. But whenever it may take place, one thing at least is clear, — ^it will come on the Church and the world suddenly, instantaneously, and without previous notice. The whole tenor of Scrip- ture points this way. It shall be " in such an hour as ye think not." — It shall come " as a thief in the night." (Matt. xxiv. 44 ; 1 Thess. v. 2.)
This suddenness of Christ's second advent is a solemn thought. It ought to make us study a continual pre- paredness of mind. Our heart's desire and endeavour should be to be always ready to meet our Lord. Our life's aim shoidd be to do nothing, and say nothing, which could make us ashamed if Christ were suddenly to appear. " Blessed," says the apostle John, " is he who watcheth and keepeth his garments." (Eev. xvi. 15.) Those who de- nounce the doctrine of the second advent as speculative, fancifdl, and unpractical, would do well to reconsider the subject. The doctrine was not so regarded in the days of the apostlee. In their eyes patience, hope, diligence, mode- ration, personal holiness, were inseparably connected with an expectation of the Lord's return. Happy is the Christian who has learned to think with them ! To be ever looking for the Lord's appearing is one of the best belpe to a close walk with God.
We are taught, lastly, in this passage, that there are ttco personal comings of Christ revealed to us in Scripture. He was appointed to come the first time in weakness and humiliation, to suffer and to die. He was appointed to come the second time in power and great glory, to put
240 BPOSITOn THOUGRTB.
down all enemies under His feet, and to reign. — ^At the first coming He was to be ''made sin for us/' and to bear our sins upon the cross. At flie second coming He was to appear without sin, for the complete salvation of His people. (2 Cor. v. 21 ; Heb. ix. 28.) Of both these comings our Lord speaks expressly in the yerses before us. Of the first He speaks when He says that the Son of Man ''must suffer, and be rejected." Of the second He speaks when He says the Son of Man shall be as the Ughtning which lighteneth out of one part of heaven unto another.
To see these two comings of Christ distinctly is of great importance to a right understanding of Scripture. The disciples, and all the Jews of our Lord's time, appear to have seen only one personal advent. They expected a Messiah who would come to reign, but not one who would come to suffer. — ^The majority of Christians, in like manner, appear to see only one personal advent. They believe that Christ came the first time to suffer. Bat they seem imable to understand that Christ is coming a second time to reign. Both parties have got hold of the truth, but neither, unhappily, has embraced the whole truth. Both are more or less in error, and the Chris- tian's error is only second in importance to that of the Jew.
He that strives to be a well-instructed and established Christian, must keep steadily before his mind both the advents of Jesus Christ. Clear views of the subject are a great help to the profitable reading of the Bible. Without them we shall constantly find statements in prophecy which we can neither reconcile with other statements, nor yet
LUKE, CHAP. XVII^ VBft. 20—25. 241
explain away. Jesus coining in person the first time to fluffeti and Jesus coming in person the second time to reign, are two landmarks of whicli we should never lose aight. We stand between. the two. Let us believe that both are real and true.
Notes. Ltjkb XVII. 20—25.
20. — [Demanded of the Pharisees.] Euthymius thinks that this' question was asked in derision. It is as if the Pharisees said, ** where is this kingdom you so often speak of? what likelihood is there of one so poor and lowly as you setting up a kingdom ? How long are we to wait before this kingdom of your's shall appear?"
I am not satisfied that this view is correct. Messiah's king- dom was looked for by all Jews at the time when our Lord was upon earth. They expected the kingdom foretold by Daniel to appear. (Dan. ii. 44.) The question before us appears to me nothing more than the natural question, which was uppermost in all Jews* minds at the time when it was asked.
[Cometh not with observation.] This expression is interpreted two ways. — Some think, with Schleusner and our marginal reading, that our Lord meant, "itcometh not with outward pomp or show." — Others think, with Parkhurst and our own translators, that our Lord meant, '*it cometh not in such a way that men shall be able to obsjerve it." — It comes quietly, noise- lessly, and unnoticed, except by those who, like Simeon and Anna, are waiting for it in a right state of mind. I decidedly incline to this last view.
One word of caution must be added. Our Lord did not mean us to understand, that there were no *' signs " whatever of this kingdom, which any intelligent believer could perceive, and that it was useless to observe the signs of the times. In another place He rebukes the Jews for " not discerning the signs of the times.** (Matt. xvi. 3.) He only meant that such signs as the carnal Jews expected, would never be seen. Those who waited for such signs would wait in vain.
The kingdom of which our Lord speaks here, evidently in dudes both His present spiritual kingdom and His futiu'e glori OU8 kingdom.
1 1 . — [Neither shall they say, Lo here ! do.] This expression is only an amplification of the preceding one. There were to be no signs of the kingdom of Onod so clear, plain, and unmistakeable, that all men would be able to- point at them and say, ** Behold,