Il. In ovk IGNORANCE OF THE TIMES OF GREAT AND SUDDEN CHANGES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, OUR HIGHEST WISDOM I8 A DILIGENT ATTENTION TO THE DUTY OF THE HOUR. The hour is always uncertain when the Lord cometh to judgment. The indolent spirit that is deluded into neglect because there is no sign of his coming, will be inevitably found “ sleeping.” How often has the Church been lulled thus to slumber! How often have the most responsible trusts been unfaithfully held! Times of judgment awake the sleepers often to find their work neglected or undone. ‘The watching spirit that momentarily devotes itself to the doing of the Lord’s will is the only safe spirit. Such a spirit is never surprised, never taken unawares. It matters not when “the lord of the house cometh,” whether “at even, or at midnight, or at cockcrowing, or in the morning.” The watching servant hails and rejoices in his lord’s approach.
III. Tae ceRTAINTY OF THE FINAL BECOGNITION OF HUMBLE, FAITHFUL, CONTINUOUS SERVICE. 1. The gracious words of warning stimulate to effort. 2. The help of the Divine Spirit is comfortingly promised to the suffering. “ It is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.” 3. The perseveringly patient one shall reap in due time. “ He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.” 4. The scattered ones whom cruel
rsecution has driven into all lands shall finally be restored, and the felicities of the Se life compensate for the sufferings of earth. ‘‘He shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.” The Lord’s one command, holding all within itself, is “‘ Watch!” “ Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.”—G.
Vers, 1—13.—Prophetic adumbrations, 1, “MATERIAL TEMPLES, POLLUTED BY MEN’S SINS, MUST PERISH.”
Il. “THe TEMPLE OF HUMAN MINDS, PURIFIED BY THE DIVINE SPIRIT, WILL ABIDE FOF EvER ” (Godwin).
Il]. Ta= EpucaTION OF mLUsIoNs. (See F. W. Robertson’s sermon on ‘ The Ilusive- ness of Life!’) God in history is God in disguise. To detect his presence is not always easy. Surface and show are constantly taken for truth and reality.
IV. VaGuE TROUBLES PRECEDE GREAT CHANGES. We live in restless times. “ Some- thing is in the air.” We know not what is meant; but something is meant. The beginning of a process must not be mistaken for the end.
V. A MORAL PRINCIPLE AND PURPOSE LIES IN ALL CHANGE. This is the secret leaven which occasions all the ferment. Deen was the truth expressed by the philosopher
214 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. [on. xin. 1—37.
when he said, “ War is the father of all things.” O1 in the myth, conflict and love are close companions. In convulsed times, be sure Divine love is profoundly working. Persecution represents the expiring struggles of error and its fellow, passion.
VI. Tue CONSTANT HEABT NEED FEAR NO EviIL. Nothing can bring us peace but loyalty to principle. Nothing can exempt us from unmanning fears but the sense that truth is on our side. The only secret of eloquence lies here. There is no salvation for the coward, the untrue, and the disloyal. For the true heart there is salvation from every possible danger.—J.
Vers. 14—31.—Dark sayings. 1. SackeD LITERATURE, LIKE NATURE, IS FULL OF HINTED TRUTH. “ Truths in nature darkly join.” Soin Scripture. The mystic ele- ment in Daniel and Scripture generally was fully recognized by Christ.
II. PRUDENCE IN MEN IS THE REFLECTION OF PROVIDENCE IN Gop. It is the light within us. In unsettled times we must be more than usually on our guard. Keen love of truth will make the mind critical and sceptical of the talk that goes on. Let us not have to say, surprised by calamity, “ We might have known this before.”
II. THERE 18 A METHOD AND A SELECTION IN THE WAYS OF PROVIDENCE. When the observer of physical nature finds a principle of “natural selection,” he finds only the visible counterpart of a law in the kingdom of God. God, through all changes, * gathers his chosen ” from the end of the land to the end of the sky.
TY. CHANGES IX THE SPIRITUAL KINGDOM ARE NATURAL, AND THOSE THAT ARE NATUBAL HAVE A SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE. Changes in plants visibly show forth changes in institutions. Below both is truth, is life. And as Christ is one with life and truth, his words abide. There is a moral conservation of force through all evolutions.—J.
Vers. 82—37.—Indefinable truth. I. AN ELEMENT OF UNCERTAINTY MINGLES WITH ALL THAT Is MOST CERTAIN. We know that certain things must happen, certain forces exert themselves, certain laws be executed in the course of things. But where, when, how? “The rest is silence.” And this is spiritually profitable. Imagination and faith live and thrive in the clear-obscure of thought.
Il. THERE WERE THINGS UNKNOWABLE EVEN TO JESUS. It is but a small portion of truth that can be rendered into definite conceptions and expressed in words. “ Truth
™ “losest words must fail.” But Jesus “received from the Father all desirable know- redge ” (Godwin).
lll. THz mMooD AND HABIT OF MIND IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN DEFINITE EWOW- LEDGE. Living is better than any theory of life. Being ready for any emergency is better than being certain about when this or that emergency will arise. “ We should be ready every day for what may come any day.”
IV. A BRIGHT AND QUIOK INTELLIGENCE I8 ABOVE ALL NECESSARY FOR THE OONDUOT oF LiFe, We must not dare to “ fall behind the times.” We must be punctual. It was said of one that he was always “a day too late.” Sleepy men and institutions will certainly be shocked out of their lethargy. Christ’s warning has been unheeded. Ecclesiastical Christianity has always been a day too late; has risen later than scienee, than business energy, than private zeal. We lean on one another too much. It is as if each sentinel should go to sleep, trusting to the vigilance of his comrade. Eve patra worker and watcher should act as if the fate of the host depended on him alone.—J.
Vers. 1—13. Parallel passages: Matt. xxiv. 1—14; Luke xxi. 5—19.—Uneapected events, I. Propusctes, 1. Distribution of prophetic tntimations. Great diversity of opinion prevails in regard to the predictions contained in this chapter. About one part of it, however, there is unanimity; the early portion contains, as all admit, a prophecy about the destruction of the temple which was literally and actually fulfilled within forty years after it had been uttered. The remainder of the chapter is understood by the majority of interpreters to refer to the destruction of Verusaeatl and the end of the world or pe dispensation, In relation to this second part there are many divergent theori
ut these in the main are reducible to two: (1) that which regards these two subjects as separately and successively exhibited ; and (2) that which maintains their cooxist-
cm. xm. 1—37.)] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. 215