THE WORLD.
In what condition will our Lord find society at his coming? What will be the spirit of the age? and what its habits and occupations when Christ appears to reign? This is our first question; and it is quite impossible to over-estimate its importance.
I. There will be no stop to men’s pleasures before the advent. There will be no startling announcement which will prevail to check the pleasure hunters. They will be found pursuing their giddy course just as at present: they will not find their souls solemnized in anticipation of the great event: the nearness of the advent will not suffice to bring on repentance: if they are not subdued by the cross of Christ, they will not be by the prospect of his appearing. The great machinery of God’s providence will move on without their perceiving it: the signal will be already given, the angelic hosts already on the wing, and the door of grace already closed, before there are any such startling appearances before the world as shall arouse the mere pleasure hunter from his dreams. Our Lord teaches this in Matthew, xxiv. 37–39.—“As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not, until the flood came and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Noah’s preaching was the only notice of the coming flood. The world pursued its own course until the very day that the rain began to fall. On the evening before they were feasting joyously, perhaps scoffingly at the toilsome labours of the man of God; many doubtless laughing at the ark; when, unexpectedly, without further notice, in the midst of their festivity, the storm gathered, the door was closed, and the unbelieving world overwhelmed in judgment. “So,” saith the Lord, “shall be the coming of the Son of man.”
II. Nor will there he any stop to business.
The same passage from St. Matthew describes a state of active employment in the world:—“Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.” (xxiv. 40, 41). The men in the field and the women at the mill represent society as engaged in their daily callings. Nor is this description confined to the unconverted only; it includes both characters. Of the two men in the field one shall he taken, i.e. caught up to be with Christ as a believer; one shall be left, i.e. to perish as an unbeliever in the world: of the two women one shall be taken as a saint of God; one shall be left as a guilty subject of his wrath. The word here rendered “taken” is the same as was employed by our Lord when he said “I will come again and receive you unto myself;” and therefore all that are “taken” are chosen saints of God. Believers, therefore, and unbelievers, will go out on that very morning to their business. The streets, as usual, will be full, the shops open, trade flourishing; the accountant will be found at his desk, the merchant in his counting house, the tradesman in his shop, the judge on the bench, the lawyer at the bar, the statesman in his cabinet, and the children in the school. Nor will there be any check on their society. There will be the dinner party, the friendly intercourse of those who love the things of God, and the empty frivolities of those who live in pleasure. Men will have their balls, operas, and theatres, to the very last; they will dance on to the very morning of the resurrection. There will be no change in the habits of society, no alteration in the ordinary aspect of the world; we shall be living together in social life just as at present, with business, cares, and social duties; when suddenly—in a moment—in the twinkling of an eye—the whole shall be stopped by one shrill blast of the trump of God; and some rejoicing, some trembling, some singing hymns of joy, and some gnashing their teeth for woe, we shall be summoned before the Son of man.
These are features in the general aspect of society, which only show that there is nothing to prevent the immediate appearance of our Lord. But they do not belong exclusively to any period. For the last eighteen hundred years men have been “eating and drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage;” and, as far as these points are concerned, they may apply as well to any other time as ours. There are however other signs given, which tend rather especially to mark our own times as approaching closely to the latter days. Take for example the prophecy of Daniel, which teaches,
III. That, just before the advent, there shall be an increase of science and travelling. Daniel, xii. 4.—“But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” These words plainly refer to the latter days; not to the end itself, but to “the time of the end;” to the last period. Now, of this period there are two things predicted to the Prophet; the one religious, the other social; the religious change is the unsealing of the vision, or the opening of the eyes of believers to truths hitherto concealed in prophecy; the social change is the rapid progress of travelling and science throughout the world. It is the latter of these with which we are now concerned. At the time of the end, therefore, there is to be an increase of knowledge and of men running to and fro on the earth. Now, ask any common observer of mankind, one who looks on life without reference to prophecy or religion; ask him what he thinks the most remarkable feature in the present aspect of society, and he will tell you the rapid advance of science and increased facility of communication. Just contrast the world at large, in respect of travelling, with what it was fifty years ago. Most truly may it be said, “Men are running to and fro on the earth.” The leading commercial feature of the day is railway speculation; the habits of society are becoming materially changed through the ease and rapidity with which we travel. Thousands and tens of thousands have now become travellers, who, a few years since, had scarcely quitted the immediate neighbourhood of their native town. Nor is this confined to England. It is the same with America, Russia, India, and the whole continent of Europe. Look again at science, at the vast improvements in machinery, at the curious discoveries in every department of useful art, at the rapid increase of knowledge throughout the world. Look again at the connexion between the two. The increase of travelling is foretold by the Prophet in connexion with the advance of science. “Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” But in Daniel’s day there could appear no such connexion. The increase of knowledge could give no speed to the heavy motions of the camel. This connexion is a discovery of the last twenty or thirty years. The prophecy lay dormant for twenty-four centuries, when a new order of things sprang up amongst us; the connexion foretold in Daniel’s prophecy broke in upon the minds of men of science, and the immediate effect has been, that increased knowledge and increased travelling are going hand in hand throughout the world. Now I do not mean to strain this too far, or to represent it as a sign of the immediate approach of our Lord. It may be merely the commencement of a new era; “the time of the end” may be only dawning upon the world. But thus much we may safely say, that there has already been sufficient change in these two respects to satisfy the prophecy; that; if the coming were to be to-morrow, there is enough to convince the most hardened infidel, that Daniel’s words have received a literal, complete, and most remarkable, fulfilment. In this respect, therefore, the world is ready for the advent.
IV. There is reason to believe from the prophetic Scriptures that the nations of Europe will be the first nations of the world at the time of our Lord’s return.
It is curious to observe in history the rise and fall of the various nations which have successively occupied the foremost position in society. Like the gleam of sunshine on the landscape, civilization and power have beamed for a while upon successive kingdoms, and then left them to be obscured and darkened by the cloud. Thus Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, have successively swayed the sceptre of the world. This sceptre is now held by the European nations generally. The power is perhaps greater than in any former age; but there is this great difference, that now it is possessed by no nation singly, but divided amongst several. In former days, the Roman republic was itself sovereign and supreme; there was no other which could pretend to rivalry. It is not so now; there may be proud pretensions to national superiority; but all have the advantage of unquestionable superiority over the uncivilized nations of Africa and the East. Such changes are inexplicable on merely worldly principles: there is nothing in nature to explain this rise and fall of moral light. The student of history may endeavour to trace the causes of a nation’s gradual decline; but, why those causes themselves appeared is a question which no natural intellect can solve. The student of prophecy, however, is not left in darkness. He knows not why it is that an all-wise God has so ordered it, but he sees in all these changes the exact completion of God’s prophetic Scriptures, and at once solves the mystery by referring the whole to the revealed purpose of an all-wise and all-controlling God. In two separate visions these changes were all foretold by Daniel. As history says there have been, so prophecy foretold there should be, four ruling kingdoms in the world. We are taught this by the vision of the image and its explanation in Daniel, ii. 31–45; and by the vision of the four beasts, in Dan. vii. [17] From both we gather the same leading facts. (1.) That Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome should, in turn, succeed to the supremacy of empires held by Babylon at the time of the Prophet. (2.) That the fourth, or Roman empire, should appear under a two-fold aspect, at first being united like the foot, but afterwards divided like the toes. (3.) That this fourth empire should be the last; that there should be no fifth arising to supersede it; for that in the time of the ten kings, its second or divided period, should arise the kingdom of the Son of man. Dan. ii. 44.—“And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.” Now, as to the two first facts, there is an exact correspondence between history and prophecy. As was foretold, Persia succeeded Babylon, Greece Persia, and Rome Greece. The Roman power again has appeared under a two-fold form, first being united under the republic and the empire, and then breaking up into the kingdoms of modern Europe. The prophecy, therefore, by its two first facts, brings the history of the world’s kingdoms down to our own exact position, and at the same time it teaches, by the third, that there can be no further change before the advent. “In the days of these kings,” i.e. the European nations, “shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom,” i.e. the kingdom of the saints, of the Son of man in glory. With reference, therefore, to the political changes of the world, we are living under the last period of the last empire. There is to be no further shifting of the seat of power: strength and civilization will be found resting with Europe when the Son of man appears.
V. There is however one feature of society before the advent of which the same cannot be said; one class of prophecies which do not yet appear to have received their full accomplishment, viz. those which predict a state of war and tribulation.