"Of that day and hour knoweth no one;" and we must be content not to
know. There are things that are "revealed"; and they belong to us and to
our children. And there are "secret things," which belong neither to us,
nor to our children, but to God. Just as a visitor to Holyrood Palace
finds some rooms open and free, through which he may wander at will,
while from others he is strictly excluded, so in God's world there are
locked doors through which it is not lawful for any man to enter. And it
is our duty to be faithful to our ignorance as well as to our knowledge.
There is a Christian as well as an anti-Christian agnosticism. To pry
into the secret things of God is no less a sin than wilfully to remain
ignorant of what He has been pleased to make known. The idly inquisitive
spirit which is never at rest save when it is poking into forbidden
corners, Christ always checks and condemns. "Lord," asked one, "are
there few that be saved?" But He would give no answer save this: "Strive
to enter in by the narrow door." "Lord, and this man what?" said Peter,
curious concerning the unrevealed future of his brother apostle. But
again idle curiosity must go unsatisfied: "If I will that he tarry till
I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou Me." "Lord dost Thou at this
time restore the kingdom to Israel?" But once more He will give no
answer: "It is not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father
hath set within His own authority." And yet, strangely enough, that
which Christ has seen good to leave untold is the one thing concerning
His coming on which the minds of multitudes have fastened. It says
little, either for our religion or our common-sense, that one of the
most widely circulated religious newspapers of our day is one which
fills its columns with absurd guesses and forecasts concerning those
very "times" and "seasons" of which Christ has told us that it is not
for us to know. Christ has given us no detailed map of the future, and
when foolish persons pester us with little maps of their own making, let
us to see to it that they get no encouragement from us. Let us dare
always to be faithful to our ignorance.
But if there is much we do not know, this we do know: the Lord will
come. And, alike on the ground of what we know and of what we do not
know, our duty is clear: we must "watch," so that whether He come at
even, or at midnight, or at cock-crowing, or in the morning, He shall
find us ready. Christ's solemn injunction left an indelible mark on the
mind of the Early Church. "Yourselves know perfectly," St. Paul writes
in the first of his apostolic letters, "that the day of the Lord so
cometh as a thief in the night ... so then let us not sleep, as do the
rest, but let us watch and be sober." As St. Augustine says, "The last
day is hidden that every day maybe regarded." But what, exactly, is the
meaning of the command to "watch"? It cannot be that we are to be always
"on the watch." That would simply end in the feverish excitement and
unrest which troubled the peace of the Church of Thessalonica. The true
meaning is given us, I think, in the parable of the Ten Virgins. Five
were wise, not because they watched all night for the bridegroom, for it
is written "they _all_ slumbered and slept," but because they were
prepared; and five were foolish, not because they did not watch, but
because they were unprepared. "The fisherman's wife who spends her time
on the pier-head watching for the boats, cannot be so well prepared to
give her husband a comfortable reception as the woman who is busy about
her household work, and only now and again turns a longing look
seaward."[56] So Christ's command to "watch" means, not "Be ye always on
the watch," but, "Be ye always ready."
Spurgeon once said, with characteristic humour and good sense, that
there were friends of his to whom he would like to say, "Ye men of
Plymouth, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? Go on with your work." He
who in a world like ours can sit and gaze with idly folded hands--let
not that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord. A lady once
asked John Wesley, "Suppose that you knew you were to die at twelve
o'clock to-morrow night, how would you spend the intervening time?"
"How, Madam?" he replied; "why just as I intend to spend it now. I
should preach this night at Gloucester, and again at five to-morrow
morning. After that I should ride to Tewkesbury, preach in the
afternoon, and meet the societies in the evening. I should then repair
to friend Martin's house, who expects to entertain me, converse and pray
with the family as usual, retire to my room at ten o'clock, commend
myself to my heavenly Father, lie down to rest, and wake up in glory."
This is the right attitude for the Christian. The old cry must not fade
from our lips, nor the old hope from our heart: _Maran atha_, "our Lord
cometh." But meanwhile He hath given to every man his work; and we may
be sure there is no preparation for His coming like the faithful doing
of the appointed task. "Blessed is that servant whom His Lord when He
cometh shall find so doing."
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