We watch ; for it is night, and though we are not children of the night, still the night with its shadows rests heavily upon us, making us with wistful keenness to look out for its passing away. We grow more dissatisfied with it as it deepens. It brings so many griefs, it gathers round us so many temptations, it calls up so many dangers, it gives courage to so many enemies, that we grow troubled at its last- ing so long. Yet we cannot shake it off. God's purpose must be served, and his time must run out. Till then let us pos- sess our souls in patience, whilst watch- ing for day-spring, and stirring up our souls with the assurance that we know of nothing between us and the ending of our long night-watch.
We watch ; for the day is ours, with all that it contains of gladness and sunshine. We are weary of the night, and we rejoice
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that it is not ours, though we are in it ; but that the day is ours. Just as we can say, " the kingdom is ours/5 so we can say, " the day is ours." And we watch for it as being ours. Its light is ours ; its blue sky is ours ; its mild air is ours ; its cheer- ful sounds are ours ; its friendly greetings are ours ; all that it calls forth of joy, and health, and purity are ours. Need any won- der that we should watch for such a day ? We watch; foi the night is far spent. Not only do we know of nought before vs ere the Lord arrive ; but we know of much behind us. Hours, years, ages have gone by. And if the whole night was to be brief, only "a little while," then surely very much of it must now be over. " The night is far spent," says the apostle ; liter- ally, it is " cut off," it is foreshortened, that is, it is becoming shorter, it is drawing to a close* Behind us are lying centuries oi
* v vi/£ TcpotKoxj/tv, Rom. xiii. 12. Thus Rutherford expresses the idea of the passage. After telling us that
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tears and shadows ; the greater part of the little while must be past ; the day must be at hand. The nearness makes the thought of day doubly welcome. We bend towards it with warm longings ; we strain our eyes to catch the first token of it ; we rouse ourselves to vigilance, knowing that now is our salvation nearer than when we be- lieved.
How it disappoints, how it damps, to be told, there are centuries more of this night- watching still to come ! Could that be proved, it would sadly chill our hope. We might at once come down from our watch- tower and give up our expectations. To " look for and haste unto the coming of the day of God,"* would be no longer a
" the blast of the last trumpet is now hard at hand," he adds, " this world's span-length of time is now drawn to less than half an inch."
* 2 Peter iii. 12. — The margin has the true render- ing here, " hasting the coming of the day of God." By looking, and praying, and watching, we hasten that day, though it be fixed in the purpose of God ; just as we are instruments (by prayer, &c.) in the conversion of a friend, though that also depends en the purpose of God. d 2
28 THE NIGHT-WATCH.
duty. The last generation of the church, living at the close of the millennium, might get up into the watch-tower, but for us, watching would be a name, a mere attitude of form or show.
It has ever been Satan's object to inter- pose some object between the church and her Lord's arrival ; but never did he light upon a more specious, more successful de- vice than that of making the interposed object a glorious and blessed one. To no other would the church have listened. She would have shrunk and turned away from a thousand years' sorrow ; but she is attracted and dazzled by the promise of a thousand years' rest and joy. Yet, is the interposition of any fixed interval, (be it sad or joyous,) lawful or scriptural ? If the Lord's advent be thrust into the distance, it matters not what may be introduced to fill the interval. If the Hope of the church be hidden, it is of small moment whether it be by a shroud of sackcloth or by a veil of woven gold.
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God deals with the church as one. Though consisting of many generations, he looks upon it as one body. And in refer- ence to her hope, he has so framed his revelation, that every generation of the church should stand upon the same footing as the last. How has this been done ? How has the first age, and how have all subsequent ages, been placed in the same position as the last ? Simply by concealing the interval. In this thing it has been truly " the glory of God to conceal a mat- ter." (Prov. xxv. 2.) For by this method, so simple and so natural, each age of the church has been made to feel, precisely as the last will feel, — to watch, just as the last will watch, when the Lord is in very deed at hand. And thus that body which is spread over centuries, has at all times been made to occupy a position and present a character, the same as if it had been a body whose life and actings were summed up in one generation. So that any known d3