The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 447

we know not, the day, the hour, of hiA own second advent. Strange that men should have ever ventured ro think that knowledge within their reach. It is hidden from us, for our g~. !t is God's will tha.t we should live looking a.lwa.ys for the judgmont. What he wills 1B best for us. He willeth that a.ll men should he saved • it is not his will that we should know the hour of the Lord's coming, or the ho~r of our own dea.th; his will is best. 3. The hour will be unknown to IM end. Noa.h was in the world a preacher of righteousness; God had wa.rned him of the coming judgment, 'l'hen the long-suffering of God waited while the ark was a-preparing. .All through that time Noah, we must suppose, was preaching, reproving, bearing witness of the wrath to come ; but men heeded him not. For many years the huge structure of the ark was a standing warning to those who lived around. But they were immersed in the ord1nary pursuits of life-in its business, pleasures, sins. They found no time to listen to the preacher's voice; it may be they mocked him, as the men of Sodom after- ~·ards mocked the one righteous man who dwelt among them.. They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark. They saw him enter with his family and the great host of living creatures; they must have known something of the meaning of his conduct. But still they heeded not; they acted as though they knew nothing; they did not repent, they did not flee for their lives. And after seven days the Flood came and swept them all away. So shall it be at the time of the end : God's servants will preach, as N oa.h preached then ; they will prepare to meet their God, as Noa.h then prepared. The world will be heed- less still, absorbed in ea.rthly things, unchanged, unthinking. Upon such idle thought- less lives the coming of the Lord shall flash in awful suddenness. 4, It will caua, strange separaticms. Two men shall be in the field ; one is taken and one is left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill ; one is taken and one is left. They are engaged in the like occupation, alike ignorant of the nearness of the judgment. Suddenly he cometh; one is ta.ken and one is left. One is taken to be with Christ in the eternal blessedness; one is left to the awful judgment. They had seemed alike to the eyes of men ; but God knoweth the secrets of the hearts. One had served him in the inner worship of the spirit, in sincerity, and faith, and holy love, and deep humility; the other had been worldly and selfish, his prayers had been but lip-service, his worship but hypocrisy. That day will make strange revelations; it will tear a.way the mask of the hypocrites, it will show the holiness and the true nobility of the humble self-denying Christian, it will make an eternal separation between the godly and the ungodly, the saved and the lost. IIL THE S.1.v10UB's WAB.NINGB. 1. The need of 'lllatehfulnaa. The Lord urges this upon us strongly. He repeats it again and again. The warning is for all people and for all times: "What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch." His apostles re-echo the Saviour's words, "Let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober." The name Gregory, borne by so many holy men, witnesses to the deep impression which this solemn warning made on the minds of early Christians. The duty is one of paramount obligation ; for the night is far spent, the day is at hand. . This present life is night compared with the full burst of the resurrection-day. The Christian must not slumber, pleasing himself with the shadowy dreams of earthly glories; he must keep vigil, watching always; for the day is at hand, the effulgent sunshine of the true life. "Therefore watch," saith the Lord: "for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come." 2. The thuf in the night. The thief comes stealthily in the dead of the night, when mon are least expecting danger. Had they known the hour, they would have watched. "The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night;" "In such e.n hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh." The Lord's words sank very deeply iato the minds of the apostles: witness the frequent repetition of the illustration (1 The81!. v. 2; 2 Pet. iii. 10; Rev. iii. 3 and xvi. 15). "'l'herefore be ye also ready." 'l'he Lord's ea.rnest admoaitions should bring home to our hearts the momentous importance, momentoWJ abon the power of language to express, of watching for his coming. Very blessed are those who know him now as a most loving Friend, a. most gracious Saviour; and, alas I very intense must be the misery of those who neglect his solemn warnings, iiving without watchfulness, without prayer; who must, unless they repent, know him for the first time as an awful J udge1 when he cometh suddenly npon the careless slumberers, as the thief cometh in the dead of night, otr, xx1v, 1-51,] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO BT. :MATTHEW, 45~