"Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house
cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the
morning" (Mark xiii. 35). There is here a large element of uncertainty.
Not the uncertainty of the event, for the second coming of Jesus is one
of the things that cannot be shaken, but the uncertainty of the _time_.
"Of that day or that hour knoweth no man, not even the angels in heaven,
neither the Son, but the Father." The time of His coming has not been
revealed, to the end that we should be always ready.
And yet, in that early age, the second advent was believed to be nigh at
hand. Jesus spake of it as "_a little while_." "Behold, I come
_quickly_, and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his
work shall be." And James, the Lord's brother, wrote, "Be patient,
therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord, for the coming of the
Lord draweth nigh." If the little while has now stretched out into
centuries, and the crowing of the cock has not yet been heard, it is not
because the Saviour has forgotten His promise, but because the
godlessness of men and the worldliness of the Church have raised up
innumerable obstacles in His way. Oh, if men would but repent and turn
again to Him, those times of refreshing would not be long delayed. God
would send Jesus, whom the heavens must receive until the times of
restoration of all things (Acts iii. 19-21, R.V.).
What a coming that will be to all those who love His appearing! At
midnight, or at the cock-crowing, the cry will be heard, "Behold, the
Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet Him." And they who are ready will
rise up at "the voice of the bird," and go in with Him to the marriage
supper of the Lamb. But the foolish virgins will be shut outside. They
too will rise up at the voice of the bird; but for them, alas! it will
be no "bird of the _dawn_." Like Judas, they will go out into the
darkness--a darkness that has no morning; and there will be the weeping
and the woe.
But that day, or rather that night, has not yet arrived. It has not yet
come for you young people. With you it is still the time of _choosing_;
and if you choose Jesus, if you remember your Creator in the days of
your youth, that evil day will never come at all. The cock-crowing will
still be to you the trump of God; but it will call you to happiness and
not to misery. It will proclaim to you the advent of the eternal dawn;
and you will rise up at the voice of the bird to exclaim, "Even so,
come, Lord Jesus."
*Peace.*
"Then had thy peace been as a river."--Isa. xlviii. 18.
I sat alone in the pinewood,
And mused with the falling leaves;
And the Autumn breath like a requiem
Hymned low for the garnered sheaves.
And the pensiveness of the Autumn,
Like the ocean rocked to rest,
Found a fitting shell-like murmur
In the heavings of my breast.
For a something came from the stillness,
It had touched me oft before,
Sometimes in the hush of pinewood,
Sometimes on the lonely shore.
It came and it touched my being,
Laid its finger on my brain,
And there alone in the pinewood
I could _pray_ as a child again.
It was not the spell of memory
Cast around me its soothing power,
Nor the magic of thought that held me
Entranced in that silent hour.
The rarest and deepest impressions
Come from fingers, but not our own,
From music unbarred and unmeasured,
From language unuttered, unknown.
They come, the unnamed and the dateless,
They come as the waves of light,
Like the murmuring breath of the pine-woods,
Like the voices of the night.
And they leave their deep impressions
In the tidemarks of the soul,
Those pulses that come as in secret,
And roll as the billows roll.
It may be in yon far region,
Far above the remotest star,
My glowing and growing vision
May find what those pulses are.
May find in the land of the morning,
In the brightness beyond the flood,
That the pensive hush of the woodland
Was a breath of the _peace_ of God.
Till then I will seek the pinewoods,
I will muse with the falling leaves,
And watch the design in symbols
That the silent finger weaves.
And catch from the fleeting river,
And the ocean so vast and broad,
From the Autumn quiet and the pinewoods,
How to know and worship God.
* * * * * * * *
*THE "GOLDEN NAILS" SERIES*
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