V. THE DIFFERENT FEELINGS WITH WHICH HIS COMING I8 REGARDED. The visit of some distinguished person to our neighbourhood or to our habitation may, according to circumstances, awaken emotions of a very different or even diverse character. Our feelings in view of the expected visit will be either pleasant or painful, according tc the character of the visitor or the object of his cominy. If he comes as a friend te further our interests, to favour our fondly cherished hopes, and to confer on us certaiz. benefits, we naturally hail his coming with delight and rejoice at the prospect of his
y advent. If, on the contrary, we have reason to believe that his intentions are hostile, that he means to oppose our plans, that he has some unpleasant measure to enforce or some punishment to inflict, we just as naturally dread his arrival and recoil from his approach. With similarly opposite views and feelings, saints and sinners, believers and unbelievers, look forward to the coming of him to whom this passage trefera.—J. J. G,
Vers. 32—37. Parallel passages: Matt. xxiv. 36—-51; Luke xxi. 34—36.—Pre- paration for Christ’s coming, |. TRANSITION FROM THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM TO THE DAY OF JUDGMENT. Again our Lord passes from the typical event to the anti- typical consummation of all things—from the destruction of the holy city to the dissolution of things visible. The limitation of our Kord’s knowledge with respect to “that day and that hour” must be understood of his human nature as the Son of man, in which he was subject to such other sinless conditions of humanity as increasing in wisdom, growing in stature, feeling hunger, thirst, lassitude, and the like; or it did - not come within the sphere of his prophetic office to reveal it, as it belonged to “the times or *he seasons which the Father hath set within his own authority.” Our Lord, according to Meyer, knew this xara «rjow, te. with respect to possession, of which, however, in his humiliation he had divested himself; not xara xpjow, in regard to use, viz. for revelation.
II. THE GREAT EVENTS CONSEQUENT ON HIS COMING. One of these events shall be the resurrection of the dead. ‘ Now,” says the apostle, “‘is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept;” but then shall be this world’s great harvest-day. Then shall a shout be heard, so loud, so piercing, that it will reach the dull, cold ear of death ; the voice of the archangel shall re-echo through the dismal recesses of the tomb, and call to life the buried dead ; the trump of God shall resound through the caverns of earth and the caves of ocean, till earth and sea shall give up the dead that are in them. Then shall be fulfilled the saying of our Lord elsewhere recorded, that “the hour is coming, in the which all that are in their graves shal} hear the voice of the Son of God, and come forth; they that have done good, to the
8 MARK—I} is Q
226 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. (cn. xu, 1—37.
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resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.” Further, on his coming at the day or hour here spoken of, the Son of man shall judge the world in righteousness. The dead, small and great, shall stand before him ; the judgment shall be set, and the books opened. All nations, and kindreds, and tongues, and peoples shall be assembled at that bar of God; ‘‘we must all appear before that judgment-seat of Christ, to give an account of the deeds done in the body, whether they be good or evil.” ‘The decisions of that day shall be final, allowing no alteration, no appeal, and no reversal. Not only so; based on the unvarying priuciples of just ce and equity, righteousness and truth, they shall commend themselves to the consciences of all concerned. The condemned and justified alike shall acquiesce in them ; sinners shall assent to them as just; saints shall approve of them as gracious; angels shall applaud them as worthy of the Judge; and all intelligences shall acknowledge them to be as impartial as irreversible.
IIJ. THE FOURTH PRACTICAL DIRECTION. The fourth great moral lesson of the chapter is watchfulness. This lesson our Lord insists on, repeating it with great earnestness, and conjoining with it the duty of prayerfulness: “Take ye heed, watch and pray ;” ‘“ Watch ye therefore ;” and again, “ Watch.” The two duties of watchfulness and prayerfulness are frequently associated ; thus, “ Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.” Both together represent Divine and human strength in co-operation with each other. If we watch without prayer, we depend on human strength, and dispense with Divine aid; if we pray without watching, we depend on Divine strength alone, and despise the human means of help which God himself has commanded us toemploy. They are the two strong arms of defence against the evil one; and we may not, we cannot, without serious dereliction of duty and gravest danger, part with either of them. This duty of watchfulness is enforced by a beautiful parabolic illustra- tion; though it is not a formal parable, as the words supplied in the Common Version make it. Those words, “For the Son of man is,” should be struck out; equally unnatural is it to supply the words, ‘‘ The kingdom of heaven is;” neither is Kuinoel’s mode of supplying the ellipsis by +o@ any better; while Huthymius, who seems to refer the words to Christ and to understand the future of the substantive verb, as though it were, “I shall be as a man setting out on a far journey,” is even less satisfactory. In addition to this, axé8nuos, said of one “already abroad, or an absentee from his people,” is confounded with érodnuay, which signifies “ going abroad.” Fritzsche rightly explains as follows :-—‘ Res ita habet ut—die Sache verhalt sich so wie,” and compares therewith the Horatian use of ué sé in the words, “ Ut tibi si sit opus liquidi non amplius urna.” So also the Revised Version, correcting both the errors of the Common Version, renders correctly : “ Jt #s as when a man, sojourning in another country, having left his house, and given authority to his servants, to each one his work, commanded also the porter to watch.” This translation helps us much in the right understanding of the illustration. The man is already abroad; but before he went abroad, he, as a matter of course, left his house, having previously to leaving given authority to his servantsin general to manage matters for him in his absence, and having appointed to each in particular his special work; and when on the threshold, as it were, he gave a charge to the porter also to watch, and so be prepared for his return,