second question. If such a warning is so clearly given, how can He be
said to come as a thief? He Himself teaches us perfectly clearly that
the meaning of the illustration is that, as the thief comes without
giving notice, so He will return without previously giving any such
notice of His approach as will arouse the sleepers. The thief does not
tell you when he is coming; and when he comes, he neither knocks the door
nor rings the bell. But he comes quietly. He does nothing to disturb
those that are asleep, and His object is to enter unobserved. So our
Lord teaches us, that when He comes He will do nothing to startle the
world. There will be nothing to prevent men eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage, right up to the very end. The men of
the world will find Him in the house before they have the least idea of
His approach. That this is the meaning of the words is perfectly clear
from what He said (Matt. xxiv. 42–44): ‘Watch, therefore; for ye know not
what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the
house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have
watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son
of Man cometh.’
But, you may say, how far is this consistent with what has been said of
the probability of His return following quickly on the exhaustion of the
Ottoman Empire? If there be a prophetic series in the book of
Revelation, and we have already reached the last station on the last
branch of the line, how is it that He can be said to come upon us without
notice as a thief does? Has He not given us notice in this prophecy?
In answer to that question we must observe the clearly marked distinction
between His own believing people and the unbelieving world. To His own
people He will not come as a thief, for we read in 1 Thess. v. 4, 5, ‘But
ye, brethren, are not in darkness that that day should overtake _you_ as
a thief.’ _You_ are in the light, _i.e._, for you can see Him coming; so
_you_ will not be found asleep. So He Himself taught us distinctly in
the very passage in which He uses the illustration; for He there shows
that His own disciples are to expect His coming when they see the
predicted signs, just as they expect the summer when they see the budding
of the trees in spring (Matt. xxiv. 32, 33). Nor are they to wait in
their expectation till they see these signs fully developed; not to wait,
_i.e._, till the young branch is fully grown; but they are to watch
beginnings, and learn from them. They are to draw their conclusion when
the branch is yet tender, without waiting till it is fully ripened; as He
Himself taught us in Luke, xxi. 28: ‘When these things _begin_ to come to
pass, then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth
nigh.’ If, therefore, you be amongst the people of God, you need never
be taken by surprise. We do not know the exact time, but we may study
the predicted signs, and, having them before us, may look out for the
second advent just as Simeon and Anna looked out for the first. We may
be like the servant of Elijah, going up again and again to the hill-top
to watch for the coming rain; or like the loving servant watching for the
footsteps of the master whom he loves, and perfectly ready, whenever he
returns, to open the door, and welcome him to his home. The Lord came
suddenly to His temple, but He did not come suddenly to Simeon; and the
Lord will come as a thief to the world, but if you hold fast to His own
word He will never be as a thief to you.
I have already said, it is the _world_ that will be found asleep, and to
whom He will really come as a thief. But some man may say, ‘If there be
these signs beforehand, will they not arouse the world as well as
believers? Will they not awaken society? Will they not compel men to
prepare?’ I answer that by another question, Do they? There are certain
signs already given; do they wake up society? Have they produced such an
impression as to arouse the great mass of worldly men? There are the
Jews preserved as a separate people, in fulfilment of a prophecy given
more than three thousand years ago; what effect has such a fulfilment of
God’s word had in the City? There are all the politicians of Europe at
their wits’ end because of the decay of Turkey; how many even of
yourselves have been led thereby to look out for the near approach of our
blessed Saviour? There is Rome stripped of its temporal power in
fulfilment of great prophecies given, some of them, more than two
thousand years ago; how many are there that have been led by that
fulfilment to look out even for the fall of Babylon? The simple fact is,
that these great fulfilments, though conspicuous to the eye of those who
study them, completely fail to produce the least impression on the deep
sleep of the unconverted world. The prophecies are not read; the facts
are not compared with them; the lessons are not learned; and the soul is
not aroused to preparation. How many are there even in this very town on
whom the fulfilment of God’s prophetic word has never produced the
slightest effect? They are living just as they would have lived, or
rather sleeping as they would have slept, if there had been no prophecy
to give the warning, and no history to confirm its truth. Can you
wonder, then, that the Lord Jesus should come upon such persons as a
thief?
But I trust, dear brethren, that He may not come as a thief to you, but
that you may be found in the light and awake, not in darkness and asleep;
or, to use the illustration of this text, that you may not wake up naked
to your everlasting shame. I am sure you desire when He comes to be
found awake, looking out, ready to welcome Him. You wish to be found
clothed. Oh, think what it would be to be found naked, when all the
saints of God are standing around you in their resurrection robe! We
have lately read of poor people startled in the night by shipwreck, and
rushing as they were to the deck, utterly unprotected against the bitter
blast of the winter’s snow-storm. Think what it would be to be suddenly
aroused from your own deep sleep, to see all that you have in the world
wrecked around you, and to find your poor soul quite naked, while the
terrible storm of God’s most just judgment beats upon you, and breaks
down every hope of escape! Oh, dear brethren, may it never be so with
you! May you be amongst those who can peacefully look for His appearing,
because you are clothed in His righteousness! May you be kept walking in
the light, and cleansed from all sin through His most precious blood!
Then you will have nothing to fear, but everything to hope for, in the
thought of His coming. Then He will never come as a thief to you, for
you will be ready at any time to open the door and welcome Him. As the
bride delights in the bridegroom, so will you delight in Him. Your trial
will consist, not in the dread of His coming, but in the difficulty of
patiently waiting for His return, and when He comes you will find no
language to bless and praise His holy name, for His boundless and
unmerited love in having redeemed you by His atoning blood; in having
called you by His sovereign grace; in having forgiven you through His
finished atonement; in having sanctified you by the Holy Ghost; and in
having preserved you in His own unchanging faithfulness, till He shall
have finally presented you spotless and faultless before the throne of
His everlasting glory.
JERUSALEM.
There is no city in the whole world which fills so important a place in
the Word of God as Jerusalem. There are several others which are more
prominent in the world’s politics, but in the great economy of God, as
revealed in Sacred Scripture, Jerusalem stands out pre-eminent above them
all. We Englishmen think of London, with its vast population and
enormous wealth, as the leading city of the world; but except in so far
as it is the capital of one of the isles of the sea, it has no place in
prophecy. The French look upon Paris as the most beautiful city of
Europe, and the centre of European influence; but, unless it is the
predicted seat of the Beast, which some persons are disposed to consider
it, it is literally nowhere in the Word of God. And Rome, which all
regard with something of awe and veneration, as being associated with the
most thrilling histories of the past, is described in the Prophetic Word
as the seven-hilled city on which is seated the mystic Babylon, the great
whore of the Apocalypse. But the whole of Sacred Scripture abounds in
allusions to Jerusalem. History, poetry, and prophecy are all full of
it. It is described as ‘beautiful for situation,’ and ‘the joy of the
whole earth.’ The people of God are taught to pray for it, and the
promise is given that those who love it shall prosper. The sacred feet
of the Son of God trod the pavement of its Temple, and we are assured
that it will never disappear from God’s great dealings with mankind,
until the New Jerusalem shall descend from heaven from our God, and there
shall be new heavens and a new earth at the coming of the Lord of glory.
It was the sight of this beautiful city, with its magnificent Temple
crowning the heights of Mount Moriah, that drew from our blessed Saviour
the remarkable prophecy contained in the 24th of St. Matthew and the 21st
of St. Luke. The disciples had pointed out to Him the buildings of the
Temple; and afterwards, as they sat together on Mount Olives, on the
opposite side of the valley, He taught them the vanity of all earthly
strength. He told them that of the beautiful Temple not one stone should
be left upon another. And He also taught them that there would be a
lengthened period of desolation and humiliation; for that Jerusalem
should be ‘trodden under foot of the Gentiles until the times of the
Gentiles should be fulfilled.’ Jerusalem was to be not merely beaten
down, but kept down, until a certain predicted period should expire. But
while the words distinctly predict a long period of desolation, they no
less clearly imply the assurance of an ultimate restoration. They teach
that Jerusalem is not to be trodden down for ever, but only till the
times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled; implying, as clearly as words
can, that, when those times are expired, the Holy City shall rise again
in its beauty. The words predict a desolation for a limited period, and
at the close of that period restoration.
I have not time to discuss what is meant by ‘the times of the Gentiles.’
Suffice it to say, that I believe it to be this present Gentile
dispensation; this time of Gentile power, and Gentile opportunity; this
time during which God is gathering out his elect people from the Gentile
world, and is employing a Gentile Church in the sacred ministry of the
Gospel of His grace. It seems to be the time of the ingathering of the
Gentile Church, for it is to last, according to St. Paul, ‘until the
fulness of the Gentiles be come in;’ and it is clearly the time of the
exercise of Gentile power, for they are Gentiles by whom Jerusalem is to
be trodden under foot.
But I do not wish to occupy time in any discussion of this period, but
rather to invite your special attention to those Gentile powers which
have trodden Jerusalem under foot. Which are they? and how do they now
stand?
What, then, are the Gentile powers which have trodden down Jerusalem? In
the course of the eighteen hundred years of her humiliation there have
been times during which there have been short interruptions in the sway
of the ruling powers. But, looking at the period as one great whole, and
fixing our attention on the conspicuous outlines of history, we find that
there are two powers which stand out conspicuous above all the rest as
the great oppressors of the holy city. These are Rome and the successive
forms of that Mahommedan power of which the present head is Turkey. Rome
trod her down at the siege of Jerusalem, and Turkey holds her down now.
Rome cast her to the ground, and when she was down Turkey set its foot on
her neck. Rome hurled her to the dust, and Turkey now tramples her in
the mire. Rome destroyed God’s Temple, and actually ploughed up the
sacred ground on which it stood. Turkey maintains on the sacred site the
mosque of Omar; and on that holy hill where Abraham offered Isaac, where
David offered the oxen of Araunah, where Solomon built his Temple, and
where the Lord Jesus, the Son of David, cast out all that was unholy;
there, by Turkish authority, now stands a Mahommedan mosque; and there no
Jew is permitted to set his foot, the only privilege allowed him being to
kneel in the Street of Wailing outside the enclosure, and there weep for
the desolation of Jerusalem.
There is something very remarkable in this fact, because these are the
two powers especially connected with the two great predicted apostasies,
Popery and Mahommedanism; Rome being the seat of the Popedom, and the
Sultan of Turkey the recognised head of the Mahommedan apostasy.
But I have no time now to examine that connexion, nor is it my present
object to do so. The one fact I desire to leave perfectly clearly on
your mind is this, that Rome, and the Mussulman power of which Turkey is
now the head, are the two Gentile powers which for the last eighteen
hundred years must be charged with having trodden down Jerusalem.
And now, what is the present position of these two powers? And how do
they stand in Europe? What is the condition, and what the prospect, of
these two great oppressors of Jerusalem?
As for Rome, as a political power it has ceased to exist, for I need not
say that the modern kingdom of Italy has nothing to do with it. It is
not built on the old lines, but is altogether a new creation, an
extension of the kingdom of Sardinia. Now there can be no doubt whatever
that the vast, iron-footed, undivided, Roman Empire, of which Titus was
emperor at the time he trod down Jerusalem, has long since passed away.
Different historians may assign different dates to its dissolution, but
no one doubts for one moment that it is dissolved. The power that
trampled down Jerusalem is broken up into ten kingdoms, and the Imperial
head is no more. There is no successor to the throne of Titus, and the
throne itself is in fragments.
It is very remarkable also that the Papal head which succeeded the
Imperial has within the last few years come also to an end as a political
power. After the division of the undivided empire the ten kingdoms were
to a great extent held together by the Papal head which succeeded the
Imperial. The Pope claimed to be the sole authority from which the kings
derived their power, and before the Reformation all Europe acknowledged
his claim. He was supposed to hold all the crowns of Europe in his hand.
But that is all over now. The kings have taken away his dominion. As a
political power the Papal head has followed the Imperial. According to
Sir G. Bowyer, in the _Times_ of Nov. 10, 1871, ‘The Pope has been
dethroned, and all his dominions and property have been reduced to a
palace, a church, and a garden,’ it does not seem, therefore, very
probable that Rome in either shape will ever again tread down Jerusalem.
We may safely say that the first of the two oppressors is no more.
But what shall we say of the second? of that Turkey which is the only
power now treading down Jerusalem? I would meet this by another
question. Is there any politician in Europe who has the least
expectation of Turkey remaining in its present position for another ten
years? Whatever little political power it retains is dying out as fast
as it can die. Its exchequer is bankrupt. Its credit is gone. Its
character for good faith is at an end. Its armies are unpaid. Its
subject populations are rising against the intolerable burdens of its
injustice and oppression; and the Turks themselves have lost heart in the
melancholy conviction that their days are numbered.
Thus, of the two powers that have trodden down Jerusalem, one is already
extinct, and the head of the other at its last gasp. The foot of the
Sick Man is the only foot now remaining on the neck of Jerusalem, and the
Sick Man is dying. Surely it is not unreasonable to ask the question,
‘When he dies, why should not Jerusalem arise and be free?’
The result is that, without dwelling on any minute detail, we are brought
by the great, long-continued facts of European history, to the most
important conclusion that, in all probability, we are approaching the
time when Jerusalem shall no longer be trodden down of the Gentiles, and
when, therefore, the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled. It is
only reasonable to suppose, that when the oppressors are taken out of the
way the oppression will come to an end; and, therefore, as one of those
two oppressors is already fallen, and the other falling so fast that all
the powers of Europe seem unable to keep him in his place, there is
surely good reason to hope that before long the captive will be free, and
that the time may not be far distant when we shall hear the cry, ‘Shake
thyself from the dust; arise and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself
from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.’
And it certainly is a most remarkable fact that, simultaneously with the
consumption of Rome and the decay of Turkey, there has been a wonderful
awakening of interest in Jerusalem and the Jews. The explorations in
Palestine are very like a fulfilment of the prophecy, ‘Thy servants take
pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof;’ and if they are,
there is good reason to hope that ‘the time to favour her, yea, the set
time, is come.’
But the interest in the people is more remarkable than that in the
country. Before the great Evangelical revival at the commencement of
this century no one seemed to have any idea that the Jews had any part in
their own Messiah. They were treated as an outcast people, and as for
their conversion, no one seems to have thought of attempting it until the
formation of the Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews, in
the year 1808. But now there are Christian missionaries labouring
amongst them in most of the principal towns of Europe, and, indeed, in
almost all the leading centres of their scattered population. The New
Testament has been translated into Hebrew, and very nearly twenty-five
thousand copies are being annually circulated amongst the Jews. The
state of feeling towards them has passed through a complete revolution,
so that of England it was said not long since by a learned and
influential Italian Jew, ‘God has blessed, and will bless, England;
because her great men, both in Church and State, take an interest in the
children of Jacob.’ Such facts are most important in themselves; but
when it is borne in mind that this interest in Jerusalem has been
awakened just at the time of the consumption of the political power of
Rome, and has been going on side by side with the decay of Turkey, it
certainly ought to lead all students of the Word of God to consider
carefully whether the times of the Gentiles may not be drawing to a
close, and the day of redemption may not be beginning to dawn on
Jerusalem.
But some may be disposed to say, How are we concerned with Jerusalem, and
what does it matter to us whether Jerusalem is trodden under foot, or
free? I fear this is a very common feeling throughout society, and that
there are thousands and tens of thousands of professing Christians who
are perfectly indifferent as to the condition of Jerusalem. But it ought
not so to be, for if it be a place cared for by the Lord, it ought to be
also cared for by his people. Besides which, even on selfish principles,
we should take an interest in Jerusalem; for, as our position as Gentiles
in Christ Jesus is most intimately connected with the fall of Jerusalem,
so our brightest hopes in Him are bound up with its recovery. In proof
of this I would ask you to turn to Ps. cii. 16, where you read, ‘When the
Lord shall build up Zion he shall appear in glory!’ The return of the
Lord is, therefore, connected with the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and,
whenever we see His hand restoring the city, we should begin to look out
in confident hope for the glorious and happy day when He Himself will
come to take the kingdom. As a student of the Word of God I should be
very much surprised if He were to come before Jerusalem is raised from
the dust; but when it is raised, it seems clear from Scripture that there
will be nothing in the great prophetic series any longer to delay His
appearing.
So in our Lord’s discourse, as recorded by St. Matthew and St. Luke, we
are taught the same thing. The object of the discourse is not, as has
been sometimes thought, to confound the taking of Jerusalem with the
Second Coming, but to distinguish them, and to warn the disciples against
the danger of mistaking the siege of Jerusalem for the coming of the
Lord. It is the restoration of Jerusalem, not the fall, which is
connected with the Advent. Our Lord, therefore, distinguishes between
the fall and the recovery, and describes the various signs that shall
precede each. So up to Luke, xxi. 24, we find the description of the
desolation, concluding with the prophecy, ‘Jerusalem shall be trodden
down of the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled.’ But
in ver. 28 we find the promise of the glorious recovery in those sacred
words, ‘When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift
up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh.’ The 24th verse
describes the desolation, the 28th the restoration, and the whole long
period described as the times of the Gentiles, with the signs of the
latter days, intervenes between the two. Now look at the account of the
redemption. It includes clearly a release from the captivity, and the
rise of Jerusalem, when the time of its treading down shall have come to
an end. But that is not all, or nearly so. The redemption there
described is identified with the return of the Lord Himself; for in ver.
27 we read, ‘Then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with
power and great glory.’ Those then who pray for the peace of Jerusalem
will rejoice for Jerusalem’s sake in its recovery. Those servants of God
who take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof, will have
their hearts gladdened when they see her rebuilt. But that is not all,
or nearly all, for whenever that happens, the whole Church of God, and
every member of it in every nation under heaven, may look up, and lift up
their heads, for the Lord Himself will soon appear. Once more, then, are
we taught our deep interest in the decay of Turkey. When Turkey falls
there is every hope that Jerusalem will rise; and when Jerusalem rises,
the next thing for us to look out for will be the Advent of the Lord.
All Christians, therefore, should rejoice in the decline of the Ottoman
Empire, for the fall of the Mussulman is the hope of the Jew, and the
return of the Jew will be the blessed harbinger of the triumphant advent
of her glorious King. Rome beat down Jerusalem, and Rome, as a political
power, is no more. Turkey is now treading her down; but its decay is
begun, and its days are numbered: so that we may earnestly hope it will
be but a little while, possibly a very little while—within the lives of
many present—when the great promise of God shall be fulfilled, and,
according to the prophecy, ‘The moon shall be confounded, and the sun
ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in
Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.’ God grant that all the
readers of this little book may be found looking for His appearing, and
ready to welcome Him with their lamps burning brightly, when the cry is
heard, ‘The Bridegroom cometh!’
* * * * *
* * * * *
* * * * *
LONDON:
Printed by JOHN STRANGEWAYS, Castle St. Leicester Sq.
* * * * *
By the same Author. {0}
* * * * *
SANCTIFICATION: being Expository Sermons.
Second Edition, enlarged.
Square fcap. 8vo. cloth, 2_s._ 6_d._
THE COMMUNION AND COMMUNICANT.
Fourth Edition, revised and enlarged.
Fcap. 8vo. sewed, 6_d._
BAPTISM.
As Taught in the Bible and Prayer-book.
Sixth Edition. Fcap. 8vo. sewed, 4_d._
INSPIRATION: its Nature and Extent.
Sewed, 6_d._
SERMONS FOR THE DAY.
Fcap. 8vo. sewed, 6_d._
CONFORMITY TO THE WORLD.
Third Edition. Paper, 6_d._
* * * * *
LONDON:
HATCHARDS, PICCADILLY.
H. COLBRAN, CALVERLEY ROAD, TUNBRIDGE WELLS.
Footnotes
{26} Hume, ii. 67.
{28} I was interested, two days after preparing this lecture, by reading
the following sentence in the _Times_: ‘Upon every temporal consideration
Rome never was so low as she lies this day.’—_Times_, Dec. 15, 1873.
{0} In this edition of the book the “By the same author” section appears
at the front of the book, before the title page. It has been moved to
the end in the eText for clarity.—DP.