The Pulpit Commentary — 1 John — Section 43

"thnt clay" (Mntt.. xxiv, 3G; vii. 22; 2 'l'im. i. 12, 18); "the ln.~t time" (1 Pet. i. 6); "the end" (Matt. xxiv. 14; xiii. 39; xxviii. 20; 1 Cor. xv. 24); "the fulness c>f times" (Gal. iv. 4; Eph. i. 10); "the a"e to come" (lie b. ii. 5; Eph, i. 21) • "the n~cs" (Hcb. i. 2; xi. 3); "ages of ages" "(Rev. xiv. 11); "all the ages" (P;, cxlv. 13 [LXX.J; Jude 25 [Greek]); "all the generations of the ago of the l\gce" (Eph. iii. 21). The conception, developed with great care by Mr. Grattan Guinncss,1 that the clockwork of the he.wens and that of prophecy are similarly set as to time, is one of exceeding attractiveness and grandeur, though our knowledge requires to be enor- mously wider ere we have the materials for its verification. At the same time, the broad fact remains that be whose being is "one eternal Now" has, both in hia works and ~n his ,vord, enclosed duration for us in a series of periods smaller or larger, in ordc1r that our limited apprehensions may have some point from whence to start, and somo goal towards which to look I II. GoD HAS ms OWN SPE0IFI0 PERIOD Fon EAC1I STEP TO BE TAKEN IN THE DE\'ELOrlllENT OF IIUMAN AFFAIRS. So far as it is needed that we should know what that step may be at any age, prophecy unfolds the plans of God. We know, e.g., that this period is "the day of salvation" foretold by the prophets; that it was ushered in by the first coming, and ,.,ill be closed by the second coming of the Son of God, for which we are bidden to wait and watch. - III, EAC1I SUCCEEDING PERIOD IS MARKED BY FEATURES PE0ULIARLY ITS OWN. "Ily this we know that it is a last hour." 'l'he Adamic, patriarchal, Mosaic, and prophetic periods were all distinctly marked. So was the transition period of the Baptist, and that of the Messial. 's life, death, and resurrection ; so also is this, the dispensation of the Spirit. A critical change takes place in each one, marking an advance on the times gone by, and serving as an introduction to those whicll are to come. IV. HENCE EACil EPOC1I MAY BE DESCRIBED AS "A LAST HOUR," inasmuch as it brings to a close some form of good (or of evil) which marked that which preceded. John the Baptist marked "the last hour" of prophecy. The Lord Jesus, "the last hour" o[ types and shadows; the Holy Ghost, "the last hour" of human probation. And our Lord Jesus reminds us that earthquakes, pestilences, etc., will mark the last hour ere he comes again, but that these will be but the beginnings of the "birth-pangs" that will usher in a new and glorious life. The Apostle John sees in the rise of anti- christ a mark of "the last hour." Even so. It is the period in which Christ goes forth to judgment and to victory, when his foes are to be made manifest to their own destruction and to his glory! V. STILL, THE WoBD OF Goo BIDS us FIX 0UB EYE ON THE CLOSE OF TIJIS EPOCH, referred to as" the day,"" that day,"" the great day," etc. We are looking for the reappearing of the Son of God, when all antichrists shall be trampled uuderfoot, and when he shall bring in the "new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." VI, EVEN" THE LA.BT DAY,"" THE END" FOB WHICH WE LOOK, WILL NOT BE AN ABSOLUTE END. It will be a consummation; and with our God it may be as it wen a new beginning. His ways are ever unfolding from glory to glory. Then let it be ours to recognize this method of Divine disclosure, and learn herefrorn : 1. 'l'he limits of Divine revelation. It is enclosed between a" beginning" and an "end." Of what was before the one, of what will be after the other, we know nothing and can think nothing. 2. To use the revealed period, that of probation, _so that, let the "end" be what it may and come bow it may, we are "ready." 3, To look forward without fear, if we are in Christ. 4. To learn " the terrors of the Lord," his manifestations of him- self, which make the righteous glad, will put rebellion and the rebel to increasi_ng sllame. Ver. 18,-" Many antichrisls." Oonneeeing linlc: In the preceding homily we had occasion to remark that the expression, "a last hour," indicated that a great crisis had already begun, and that the apostle declared that the mark of such e. crisis was to be ee?n in the rise of "many antichrists," We then, with the thought of a last hour as the basis, endeavoured to indicate the time-enclosures of Divine revelation. Now we have to expand, e.s far as our space permits, the apostolic teachings which gather round the 1 'See 'The Approaching End of the Age,' 2nd edit., pt. iv. on. 11. 1-29.J TIIJil FIRST EPISTLE GENERAL OF JOHN. 39'