Page images
PDF
EPUB

shall be shaken; and then shall appear the SIGN of the Son of Man in the heaven. We must either admit, then, that the appearance of the Son of Man in the firmament, or heaven, is the sign of his apovera, his advent, or presence; or else, as I have said, that there is no direct answer given in this chapter, nor (as I think) in any other, to the question of the disciples, as quoted above.

"And, again, it seems impossible to affix any definite meaning whatever to these words, 'the sign of the Son of Man in heaven,' unless we understand his visible presence there to be what is referred to by the expression 'the sign.' For, as in Matt. xii. 39, not Jonah's sign, but Jonah the sign, is signified by the words 'the sign of the Prophet Jonah;' and as in Acts iv. 22 (to onμčov TÔUTO TÃS 1208WS) we understand the healing itself as the thing called rousser, the miracle, or sign; and as in Rom. iv. 11, by the words or perous, we understand, not properly A sign of circumcision, but circumcision the sign, received by Abraham; so in the text before us we must likewise understand, not properly 'the sign of the Son of Man in the heaven,' but the Son of Man in the heaven THE SIGN of his advent.

παρουσία,

"Hence I conclude with perfect confidence, that there shall be such an appearance of the Son of Man in the heaven, or the sky (Gen. i. 8); a proper ipava (apparentia quæ est superne et in summo. Scapula), an EPIPHANY, of the Son of Man; preceding his his advent to the earth, or presence thereon, by a certain period of time, during which all the tribes of the earth shall mourn. As it is written: '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 (1) upon the clouds of heaven, with

power and great glory." Or again, as in Rev. i. 7: Behold, he cometh (ra) with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him; and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him: Even so, Amen.'

"The word qua, or Epiphany, occurs in the New Testament only six times; in five of which it is translated the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ; while in the last that I shall mention it is rendered, by what authority it is difficult to guess, 'brightness. In Titus ii. 13, we read that the grace of God which bringeth salvation teacheth us, that we should live expecting that blessed hope, and the glorious 'epiphany' of the great God and Saviour of us, Jesus Christ. In 2nd Tim. iv. 8, St. Paul writes, 'Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them that love his epiphany.' For, indeed, it appears that this "epiphany of our Saviour (as distinguished, and separate both in time and place, from his awful 'presence' to the destruction of the ungodly) is the proper object of the believer's love, the point of fact on which his hopes and heart are fixed with unmixed desire, with pure love of its approach; with none other sentiment than only love: and hence, indeed, one important reason for our contemplation of that epiphany apart, and by itself.

"In 1st Tim. vi. 14, et seq. we find that God the Father (whom none hath seen, nor can see') shall make manifest this epiphany; assuming to Himself the honour of so doing, as worthy of his holy name and exalted characters, even unto the grandeur of the eloquence of the text.

"From 2nd Tim. i. 10, we learn that Jesus Christ

shall judge the quick and the dead 'at his epiphany, and his kingdom:' probably, from Rev. xx., the quick at his epiphany, and the dead at (i. e. during) his 'everlasting reign.'

"In 2nd Tim. i. 10, we read that 'the purpose and grace given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, is Now' (i. e. since his resurrection) 'made manifest,') or hath been seen, through the epiphany of Jesus Christ our Saviour.' And in this passage we must understand the Apostle to refer either to the manifestation of God's purpose towards us, in the ascension of the Lord's risen body, the pledge, the earnest, and the similitude of his return

(Acts i. 11,) namely, when the cloud received him out of their sight'or else to that epiphany of our Lord which was vouchsafed unto himself, for our sakes, at his conversion (1 Cor. xv. 8, and iii. 21, 22, with Acts ix. 1-6).

"Lastly. In 2nd Thess. ii. 8, we read that our Lord will consume that man of sin in, or by, the spirit of his mouth, and destroy him in the epiphany of his advent (ὁ ανομος ον ὁ Κύριος αναλώσει τῷ πνεύματι τον ςόματος αυτού, και καταργήσει τη επιφάνεια της παρουσιας αυτοῦ:) so that, beyond all controversy, the epiphany of our Lord is to be distinguished from his advent, or presence, at all events as a part (and that the first part of any process of successive events) is to be distinguished from the whole. And as the Lord Jesus interrupted his ascension from 'the lowest parts of the earth' (Eph. iv. 9, &c.), being seen of his disciples repeatedly during forty days before he proceeded on his way to the light of the Highests, where St. Stephen afterwards saw him standing at the right hand of God (Acts vii. 55;) so there can be no doubt that he purposes to interrupt his descent, or return; remaining for a time in the sky, before he prosecutes his

advent to the surface of our planet: and this period (whether it be longer or shorter I cannot tell) is what the Scriptures denominates his 'epiphany.

"Now we know that when he shall appear his appearing and his presence shall be as the lightning, which cometh out of the east and shineth even to the west (Matt. xxiv. 27): in the midst of the blackness of sunless darkness (ver. 20,) and when he shall have clothed the heavens with blackness (Isai. 1. 2, 3,) his rising shall be like the morning-star, dividing a way for the lightning of his thunders, as the lightning-shaft in the splendour of his wrath,sudden, alone, irresistible, and unexpected. And 'every eye shall see him' (Rev. i. 7). And the heavens and the earth are described as having 'fled from before him' (Rev. xx. 11); an expression which reminds me of the word vouchsafed in ancient times to Joshua his type, when Joshua spake to the Lord, in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel: 'Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, moon, in the valley of Ajalon. For as the sun and the moon stood still indeed (not altering their relative position to the earth our planet), although by means of the arrested state of the latter, and not by any new circumstance or condition of their being; so I understand that the sky and the earth shall flee from the presence of the Lord in our firmament; our planet reeling on its axis at his approach, and revolving upon its poles in the twinkling of an eye; the primeval mountains bowing down before him; the great sea worshipping him; the brute earth doing homage to its Maker and Preserver: as it is written in the 75th Psalm: "The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved; I bear up the pillars of it.' And, indeed, it

is curious to observe, that in such a case (namely, if the earth our planet should revolve upon its axis suddenly, and in a moment), then we must of necessity find both night-time and day-time-that is to say, both hemispheres of the globe simultaneously present in the scene of our Lord's epiphany, that fixed point of glory in the sky in which he sits THE ALONE UNMOVED ONE. And, accordingly, in Luke xvii. 31, we find the Lord's appearance spoken of as 'in that day,' while in the third verse following, (ver. 34) it is spoken of as 'in that night;' for, if England and its celestial canopy are to flee from before him by the earth's sudden revolution on its axis, then the night of this country, and the day of our antipodes, shall both be involved in the vision of the sign of the Son of Man appearing in the heaven.

"As a thief in the night shall the Lord come,'suddenly, and unexpectedly by all those who have reason to fear, or who ought to have watched the signals of his approach; while men are eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, lying quietly in their beds, or preparing their daily food at the mill; unbelieving, and therefore unprepared. But those interpreters have strained the figure beyond its natural bearing, even to the hazardous flattery of their own hope, who have ventured to presume, that, because he enters the house as a thief, he shall therefore spoil the goods of the strong man without his knowledge.

"Every eye shall see him,' and 'wail because of him . . . . men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things that are coming on the earth' (Rev. i. 7; Luke xxi. 26). The earth and all its inhabitants are dissolved; I bear up the pillars of it.' And according to the type of Pharoah, who

« PreviousContinue »