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I. _The period to which the prophecy refers_ is described distinctly
(iii. 1) as “the last days:” “This know also, that in the last days
perilous times shall come;” or, as it is said, 1 Tim. iv. i., where a
similar apostacy is foretold, “the latter days:” “Now the Spirit speaketh
expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith,
giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.” The exact
extent of the period expressed by “the last,” or “latter days,” it may be
difficult to determine; but one thing is plain; they must reach up to the
advent of our Lord. There is nothing else to follow them before his
coming. They may cover a longer or shorter period, but that period is
the last of the present dispensation. They may commence earlier or
later, but they must end with the advent. The prophecy carries us,
therefore, right on to the coming of the Lord: it contains a picture of
the visible church as Christ shall then find it; it is not a description
of its early days alone, the first efforts of its infancy; but rather of
its old age, when man shall have done his all, when churches have been
established, bibles circulated, and all done that can be done through
man’s instrumentality; then—at the very end—will the church be surprised
in the exact condition foretold in this chapter of the Apostle.
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