“Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?” Matt. 24:44, 45.
Note.—In the last days a message will go forth which will be “meat in due season” to the people. This must be the warning concerning the Lord's soon coming, and the preparation necessary to meet Him. Because such a message was not always preached, is no evidence that it is not now to be proclaimed. In his farewell address to the Pilgrim Fathers on their departure from Holland for America, John Robinson said: “The Lord knoweth whether I shall ever see your faces more; but whether the Lord hath appointed that or not, I charge you before God and His blessed angels to follow me no farther than I have followed Christ. If God should reveal anything to you by any other instrument of His, be as ready to receive it as you ever were to receive any truth by my ministry; for I am very confident that the Lord hath more truth and light yet to break forth out of His Holy Word. For my part, I cannot sufficiently bewail the condition of the Reformed churches, who are come to a period in religion, and will go no farther than the instruments of their reformation. The Lutherans cannot be drawn to go any farther than what Luther saw; and the Calvinists, you see, stick fast where they were left by that great man of God, who yet saw not all things. This is a misery much to be lamented; for though they were burning and shining lights in their time, yet they penetrated not into the whole counsel of God, but were they now living, would be as willing to embrace further light as that which they first received.”
22. What does Christ say of that servant who, when He comes, is found giving “meat in due season”?
“Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.” Verse 46.
Notes.—The coming of Christ in glory has been the hope of the faithful in all ages.
Luther declared: “I persuade myself verily, that the day of judgment will not be absent full three hundred years. God will not, cannot, suffer this wicked world much longer. The great day is drawing near in which the kingdom of abominations shall be overthrown.”
Melanchthon said: “This aged world is not far from its end.”
Calvin bade Christians “not to hesitate, ardently desiring the day of Christ's coming as of all events most auspicious;” and declared that “the whole human family of the faithful will keep in view that day.” “We must hunger after Christ, we must seek, contemplate,” he adds, “till the dawning of that great day, when our Lord will fully manifest the glory of His kingdom.”
Said Knox, the Scotch Reformer: “Has not our Lord Jesus carried up our flesh into heaven? and shall He not return? We know that He shall return, and that with expedition.”
Ridley and Latimer, who laid down their lives for the truth, looked in faith for the Lord's coming. Ridley wrote: “The world without doubt—this I do believe, and therefore I say it—draws to an end.”