Westcott (B. F.), The Historic Faith, 85.
Wilberforce (B.), New (?) Theology, 236.
Christian World Pulpit, Ixiv. 408 (E. H. Eland).
Church of England Magazine, Ixxi. 368 (J. J. Cort).
Contemporary Pulpit, v. 257 (W. Thomson).
Literary Churchman, xxx. (1884) 510 (C. G. H. Baskcomb).
National Preacher, xxxii. 382 (S. B. Willis).
The Second Advent.
Behold he cometh with the clouds ; and every eye shall see him, and they which pierced him ; and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over him. Even so, Amen. — Rev. i. 7.
No one can study the New Testament without feeling that the thought of Christ's Keturn was everywhere present and powerful in the first age. In the Gospels and in the Apocalypse, in the Acts and in the Epistles, the same hope is the subject of promise, of exhortation, of vision. It would perhaps be impossible to find any other special doctrine of Christianity which is not only affirmed, but affirmed in the same language, by St. Paul and St. James, by St. Peter and St. John. The Keturn of Christ to judgment was the subject on which St. Peter spoke when the Jewish multitude were astonished at the first apostolic miracle ; it was the subject on which St. Paul spoke when he first passed over into Macedonia and his enemies accused him of preaching " another king than Caesar." It seems to rise uppermost in the minds of the Apostles when they are themselves most deeply moved and when they wish to move others most deeply. It is, as they declare it, the sufficient motive for patience in affliction and the end of expectation in the presence of triumphant evil. And more than this: the hope of Christ's Eeturn was not only universal in the first age ; it was instant. From Jerusalem and Corinth the same voice came that " the time was at hand," even as when the Baptist heralded Christ's ministry. The dawn of an endless day was held to be already breaking after a weary night ; and while St. Paul reproved the error of those at Thessalonica who neglected the certain duties of life that they might, as they fancied, watch better the spread of the heavenly glory, he confirmed the truth which they had misinterpreted. With us it is far otherwise. A few enthusiasts from time to time bring the thought of Christ's Eeturn into prominence, but for the most part it has
20 THE SECOND ADVENT
little influence upon our hearts and minds. We acknowledge generally, in a vague manner, that we shall severally render an account of our doings, but we do not look beyond this either in hope or in fear to any manifestation of judgment in the world.
^ One of Dr. Bonar's reminiscences of the people at Jedburgh was a story of a half-witted man whom he used to visit. This poor man had found Christ and had learned to rejoice in the thought of His return to earth. He went to Edinburgh on a visit, and came home much dissatisfied with the ministers. When asked why, he said, " Oh, they a' flee (fly) wi' ae (one) wing ! " They preached Christ's First, but not His Second, Coming.^
"He Cometh."
1. The Lord shall come ! This is the burden of this last book of Scripture. It was the burden of the Old Testament ; for Enoch's prophecy runs through all its books, — " Behold, the Lord Cometh with ten thousand of his saints." It is the burden of the New Testament ; for both the Master and His Apostles give out the same solemn utterance, — " Behold he cometh ; " and the Church in the early ages took up the subject as of profoundest and most pressing interest, " looking for that blessed hope." In that coming, the manifestation of Christ, all things, our actions and ourselves, shall be seen as they are, seen by ourselves and seen by others. Then the whole course of life, the life of creation, of humanity, of men, will be laid open, and that vision will be a judgment beyond controversy and beyond appeal.
fl Dr. Bonar was absorbed from first to last in the faith and hope of the Second Advent. Wherever we open the New Testa- ment, we find it thrilling to the heat and joy of that manifest- ation and coming of the Lord when we shall see Him as He is. Edward Irving, with all his errors, did one thing. He revived for his generation the Parousia as the definite hope of the Church which witnesses to the Lord's death till He come. Dr. Nansen has recently told us what science has to say about the end of the world. He tells that the end will take place after millions of years, when the sun has been cooled. Life will then have to cope with greater and greater difficulties of existence, until it
'^Reminiscences of Andrew A, Bonar, 4.
REVELATION i. 7 21
finally and entirely disappears. The possibilities of existence will become gradually less and less favourable for the complicated and highly developed animals, whilst the simple low organisms will probably be those that will live longest until even they disappear. But the faith of the Church is that the Christ who once offered Himself in our nature as the full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, satisfaction, and oblation for the sins of the whole world will come again. The Christ who comes will be the Christ who departed, and His coming will be in like manner as the disciples saw Him go, visible, corporeal, local. We, according to His promise, look for a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. I venture to think it a great weakness of our teaching that so little is said about the blessed hope and appearing of our great God and Saviour. Meanwhile, if He returns not in our lifetime, we know that we are dying people, all of us ; that there are before us death, judgment, and eternity. So let us offer the prayer :