We are taught by our Lord (Matthew, xxiv. 21, 22) that the time of the end shall be one of peculiar distress: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” The passage may have a primary and typical reference to the destruction of Jerusalem; but that this reference is not exclusive appears plainly from vv. 29 & 30: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken; and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven.” The tribulation of those days is here described as the last event on earth before the advent. So again in Luke, xvii. 33:—“Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.” The passage refers to “the day when the Son of man is revealed,” v. 30; and the words quoted show that the state of things will be of such a character as to involve the risk of martyrdom in the faithful confession of the truth. But the words of Daniel are more explicit still. “And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever. 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;” Daniel, xii. 1–4. There can be no doubt as to the time here referred to: it is determined by four indisputable marks. The final deliverance of God’s chosen people; the resurrection; the glory of the saints; and the title given to it, “the time of the end.” Nor can there be any doubt as to the fact predicted. “There shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time.”
The words of our Lord again teach us that the commencement of these sorrows shall be war. “And ye shall hear of wars, and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows;” Matt, xxiv. 6–8. So the great crisis is described in the Revelation, as “the battle of Almighty God;” Rev. xvi. 14. But we are now at peace, nor is there at present any open combination of the ruling powers against the truth. Believers may have their hearts grieved by the national support of error, and here and there may be the outbreak of a persecuting spirit; but there is nothing yet of a great tribulation, nothing approaching to the fiery trial foretold in Daniel’s awful prophecy. All this is to come: how soon God only knows. Persecution is now condemned, but the last ten years have witnessed a wonderful political revolution in Rome’s favour; and it may be amply proved from facts as well as documents that she only waits the favouring day of power, to develope her old character, and make herself drunk in the life-blood of the saints. We are still at peace: but we heard last year of the cloud in the West, who shall say how soon the storm may gather, and burst in a thunder-clap over our heads? Europe is still at peace; but surely the mine is ready, the train is laid, and it needs but the death of one aged sovereign to produce an explosion which may convulse the very foundations of society. Then increased science will only produce unknown horrors, nor does it need any stretch of a lively imagination to foresee the onset of such days as those described by our Lord, when he said, “Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.”
For such a period believers should be ready. Every living man will be swept away by the flood, except the little, blessed, band, who have a fast “hold upon the anchor of the soul sure and stedfast, and that entereth into that within the veil.” Nothing then will stand but the strong reality of a living union with Jesus. Well, therefore, has the voice gone forth as the precursor of the conflict, “Behold I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame;” Rev. xvi. 15.
But, in what attitude shall society be found?
VI. According to the Scriptures, there shall be a general indifference to the subject of his return.
Of course, amongst the people of God, there will be many whose hearts God has led to the patient waiting for Christ. Some, in the fervour of an ardent hope, may carry their longings into enthusiasm; and others, in the calm sobriety of a Scriptural faith, like Simeon and Anna, will abide waiting for their Lord. But such cases will be the exception. The great mass of men will be altogether indifferent. They will care no more for our preaching than the men before the flood did for Noah’s: they will think it an idle and enthusiastic tale, and utterly disregard the whole matter.
Some indeed will scoff at it. They will challenge believers to the proof of it; they will point to the world’s unbroken course, and say “Where is the promise of his coming?” They will be ready to raise the sneer against the church’s hopes, and only notice the blessed tidings just to scoff at them as idle speculation. “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation;” 2 Pet. iii. 3 & 4.
But this scoffing spirit is not described as the general feature of society. It requires some attention even to scoff at God’s promises. But the general character of the world with reference to this great subject will be apathy; downright, dogged, indifference to the whole concern. Thus, in the parable of the talents, “they all slumbered and slept.” The wise virgins could sleep in calm peace, for they were ready; the foolish virgins could slumber only in apathy, for, being unprepared, they could only wake to perish. Thus our Lord says he “will come as a thief in the night,” when none give the thing a thought. The watchman may cry the hour, but the sleeper sleeps: he may sound the note of warning, but the sleeper sleeps: the thief may be within the chamber, but still he sleeps unmoved, unconscious, unprepared. Now this is the description which our Lord gives of the world before his coming. He says, men shall be found sleeping, a few blessed servants watching, but the mass sleeping, unconscious of his approach, unconcerned at his promises, unawakened even by the judgments that hurry on as the forerunners of his wrath.
The message then for the day is, “Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” It is impossible for any man of common observation to be blind to the fact that the great mass of men are still slumbering before God. Quick and energetic in their business, keen in their speculations, alive and alert as to the money market, they are profoundly insensible to the coming. They are content to leave the great point unsettled. They are hurrying before the judgment seat, and have not yet bowed before the cross. They are shortly to stand before the judge, and for aught they know, the whole weight of God’s curse still hangs over their unforgiven sin. There is no fellowship with a Saviour, no walking with God, no cleansing of guilt in the Lamb’s most precious blood, no eager wrestling with God that they may have a full assurance of their name written in the book of life. A free, full, complete, salvation is now offered to them; justification and restoration are promised graciously through the name of Jesus. They are warned of their danger, and invited to the Lord for safety. Yet they sleep, they slumber on; and if perchance they for a while raise their head to listen, it is either to scoff at the message, or to sink back into a slumber more fatal, more profound. Oh! that the Holy Ghost may condescend in mercy to awake those slumberers to activity and life! Oh! that the Spirit of the living God may himself break the spell of that fatal apathy! Oh! that in our beloved church we may see the fulfilment of the Apostle’s prayer:—“The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ!”