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that belief now. We must not therefore reject sayings which are ascribed to Jesus on the sole ground that they do not harmonize with our ideal of a twentieth century teacher. We are inquiring into the facts in the life of an historical person, and we must proceed by historical methods, and not adapt the history to our own predilections.

There is an indisputable and impressive fact which has an important bearing on our inquiry. It was the universal belief of the primitive Church that Jesus would return to earth before the first generation of believers had passed away. This will become clear if we bring passages from various documents together under one view. I have already referred to the First Epistle to the Thessalonians,1 where Paul speaks in the first person: We that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord' and he professes to base this statement upon the word of the Lord.' The same subject is treated at length in the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians; but the personal expectation is not so clearly pronounced, though i. 7 and ii. I certainly suggest a coming within his own lifetime. In I Corinthians the hope is still confident that we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,' that the dead shall be raised . . . and we shall be changed ';3 and it is intimated that the time is short, and all earthly conditions have such an evanescent value as to be practically non-existent.4 Paul tells the Romans that 'the night is far spent, and the day is at hand.' And towards the close of his life, though he began to feel that he might die before the great advent, he still was looking for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, from heaven. This belief was not confined to Paul. At the beginning of Acts we are assured that Jesus went up into heaven, and would come again in like manner, and it seems implied in one of Peter's addresses that the Christ would be sent to the men who were

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listening to him, provided they repented.1 James too is living in the last days,' and is confident that 'the coming of the Lord is at hand,' and 'the judge standeth before the doors.'2 In I Peter we are warned that 'the end of all things is at hand,' and that the time is come for judgment.'4 In I John also 'it is the last hour,' as was proved by the antichrists who were to precede the great consummation.5 The Seer of the Apocalypse takes up the strain, and speaks of things which must shortly come to pass.' '6 Among these things are a new heaven and a new earth'; and Jesus declares that the time is at hand,' and that he comes quickly. The Alexandrian culture of the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews does not prevent him from holding fast the confession of our hope that it waver not,' as he saw 'the day drawing nigh,' and applied to his own time the prophecy, For yet a very little while, he that cometh shall come, and shall not tarry.'9 Finally, the late Epistle, II Peter, shows that the non-fulfilment of the expectation was an obstacle to Christian faith. Mockers were asking, 'Where is the promise of his coming?' The fathers had fallen asleep, and all things went on as they had done from the beginning. The writer replies that the Lord is only giving time for repentance, that with him one day is as a thousand years, and that the presence of the mockers was a sign that the 'last days' were really come.10

There are various types of doctrine in the New Testament; but this one belief, which history has failed to verify, was as universal as it was tenacious, and seems to have been quite a fundamental dogma in the primitive gospel. What was its origin? We might, I think, fairly say that it was almost a necessity of faith among Jewish disciples, whose minds were imbued with the Messianic idea. They had risen to the belief that the Crucified might be the Christ; but his suffering could

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not do away with the prediction that he was to rule in regal splendour over the renovated earth. The distinctive work of the Messiah, the establishment of the kingdom of God, with himself as its visible head, was still to be accomplished; and thus the confession that Jesus was the Christ virtually involved belief in his second advent. The withdrawal into heaven would naturally be regarded as of short duration, for men do not put off their enthusiastic expectations to a far distant future. Moreover, John the Baptist had declared that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, and Jesus himself (for this we need not doubt) had repeated the declaration. In this way we might, I think, account for the prevalent belief. And yet so universal and so confident a conviction can hardly have arisen without some support in the teaching of Jesus. himself; and when we find distinct attestation that it was so, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the reports which have come down to us rest on at least a substantial basis of fact.

In judging of the historical attestation two considerations seem to be of importance: first, the testimony is, in essential points, the same in all three Synoptics, and therefore in all probability represents the primitive apostolic tradition; and secondly, the prediction is repeated on several occasions, so that it can hardly be ascribed to the mistaken insertion of a piece of Jewish apocalypse. In the great eschatological speech Jesus declares that the Son of Man shall come in clouds with great power and glory, and that this generation shall not pass away until all these things be accomplished." At an earlier time, in sending out the Apostles to preach, he uttered the promise, 'Ye shall not have gone through the cities of Israel, till the Son of Man be come."2 This is not indeed in the parallel passages in Mark and Luke; but there are obvious reasons for its omission, whereas it is not easy to explain its improper interpolation. Connected with this is a

1 Matt. xxiv. 30, 34; Mark xiii. 26, 30; Luke xxi. 27, 32.

2 Matt. x. 23.

promise made in reply to Peter's question, 'What then shall we have?' Jesus answers, Ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.' This also is wanting in Mark and Luke; but the latter has a very similar expression in his narrative of the last supper. Jesus there says, 'I appoint unto you a kingdom, even as my Father appointed unto me, that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom; and ye shall sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.'2 More important is the solemn declaration which Jesus made after the confession of Peter: 'Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also shall be ashamed of him, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, There be some here of them that stand by, which shall in no wise taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God come with power.' So the words stand in Mark,3 and they are substantially the same in Luke. In Matthew the earlier part of the saying is wanting, so that there is nothing to identify the Son of Man with Jesus himself; and the concluding words are, 'till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom,' a sense which is, however, implied in the other accounts. In Mark and Luke it is clear that Jesus and the Son of Man are one and the same. Lastly, there is the solemn reply of Jesus to the adjuration of the high-priest, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am : and ye shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.' Luke omits here the coming with the clouds; but his Gospel is probably late enough to account for the omission on the ground that the prophecy had not been fulfilled.

1 Matt. xix. 28.

2 Luke xxii. 29, 30.
3 Mark viii. 38-ix. I.
5 Matt. xvi. 27 sq.

4 Luke ix. 26 sq.

6 Mark xiv. 61 sq.; Matt. xxvi. 63 sq.; Luke xxii. 67-69.

It is difficult to suppose that all these reports are without foundation in fact; and if we could be sure that they had not become seriously coloured in transmission, we should be forced to conclude that Jesus expected to return in person, and establish the Messianic reign, before his own generation. had passed away. I confess, however, that I find it impossible to reconcile this view, not only with the classical saying that 'the kingdom of God cometh not with observation,'1 but with a series of parables which represent it as of hidden, silent, and gradual growth. It is true that in some of these parables an end of the world is spoken of, when the Son of Man will send forth his angels, or the return of a master is contemplated who will call his servants to account; but the end of the world is placed quite indefinitely in the future, and the return of a master or the coming of a bridegroom is susceptible of a spiritual interpretation. On the other hand, the general lesson of the parables is perfectly explicit, and a kingdom which was to come like a flash of lightning, and with awful portents in earth and sky, could not be described as coming not with observation. It may be said, however, that men are not always consistent, and that the popular view may sometimes have become uppermost in the mind of Jesus ; but this kind of inconsistency is not easily reconciled with the general calmness and balance of his character. His foresight of his death shows how clearly he looked facts in the face, and did not allow himself to be carried away by empty dreams. But he may have used language which was afterwards misunderstood. We know that he was fond of speaking figuratively, and of setting forth spiritual truth in material images; and the exaltation of the prophetic gift tends to rise into poetry, and does not easily express itself within the trammels of logical speech. It is, therefore, possible that in asserting his confident belief that his cause could not be put down, that the kingdom of humanity would surely come, and though men might kill his body the spirit of his life would

1 Luke xvii. 20.

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