It is now thirty-six years since these remarkable sermons were preached
by the late Canon Hoare. Published at the time, they had a very large
circulation and passed through several editions. An earnest desire
having been manifested for their re-issue with the addition of some
footnotes bringing them up to date, I have consented to undertake that
simple office. With happy memories of work under the beloved Vicar long
ago (1877–81) there is, to me, something indescribable in being permitted
once more in this unexpected way to unite with one who now within the
Veil walks not by faith but by sight and who instead of knowing but in
part now _knows_ even as also he is known.
It is a great tribute to the sagacity of the preacher, his deep knowledge
of Scripture, and his keen prophetic instincts, that these sermons need
no alteration, and only the necessary additions demanded by the history
of passing years.
The advance has been all along the exact lines which he as a diligent
student of the prophetic Scriptures was able to lay down. “The wise
shall understand” (Daniel xii. 10) is a promise which we see here
strikingly fulfilled.
Could the venerable preacher have seen the extraordinary developments
that have taken place in Jerusalem and the Holy Land during the last few
years, or the amazing collapse of the Mohammedan power which Europe has
witnessed in the past few months, how his heart would have rejoiced at
the fulfilment of Scriptural predictions, and how earnestly would he have
proclaimed afresh His Master’s Words—“When ye shall see these things,
know that He is nigh, even at the doors.”
_December_, 1912.