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| The Imminency of the Second Advent pt. 3 |
Pages after pages, making a large volume by itself, could readily be filled with quotations from numerous able commentators, talented scholars,
eminent writers, periodicals, sermons, etc., insisting upon these salient points: (1.) The great nearness of the Advent; (2.) that it may occur at any
time; (3.) the duty of daily and hourly watching for it. With a large number, it forms, what they designate, “the generation of truth,” and they insist
upon every believer occupying the constant attitude of expectation described by Dr. Candlish (Sects. on Genesis, Sect. 17,): “Looking for Christ
now, is waiting for Him with ‘loins girt and lamps burning.’ It is watching also, as not knowing at what hour the Master may come; but yet ‘knowing
the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep.’” For they impress what Lange (Com. Matt., p. 443) calls, “the fearful solemnity of the
thought, that the Judge of the world may come at any moment.” As the utterly uncalled for impression is sought to be made (in order to make our
views odious), that no eminent or scholarly pre-millenarians hold to, and teach, this imminency, it seems right and proper to allow several of them,
men of note, to testify to their belief in their own words, to serve both as an illustration of the expressed faith of many others, and as a rebutting of the
unjustifiable disparagement of students of prophecy, whose goodness may be reluctantly allowed, but whose ability is not merely questioned but
positively denied.
Ponder, e.g., the plain and ringing testimony of Rev. Dr. J. A. Seiss (The Last Times, p. 302,): “For my own part, I will believe and preach, that
the Day of the Lord is at hand, and would rather encounter the sneers and vulgar taunts of all mankind, and be found ready when my Saviour comes
that to be accounted the most sober of theologians and enjoy the fame of the most revered favorite of popular laudation, and have that day find me
unfaithful to my duty, and unprepared for my change. I have been unable to fix upon any precise time. Some profess to know it; I do not. Christ
may come in three, seven or ten years; or not so soon. A few developments may make the matter certain. But I wish to bear my distinct testimony,
that I believe His Coming is at hand, and that we ought to be ready and expecting it any day and every day.” After referring to and giving the
statements of well-known writers, who advocated such an imminency, he continues (p. 304): “Let it not be said that these are fanatic ravings, or
loose vociferations, of ignorant people. They are the deliberately formed conclusions of our most competent, most pious, and most profound
investigators of God’s holy revelations. Men of the highest order of mind, scholars of the profoundest erudition, Christians of the most enlightened
piety, after years and years of patient, laborious, prayerful and independent study, and in the face of a speedily appearing Judge, have thus solemnly
proclaimed to the world, that we are now standing upon the very eve of the Saviour’s Coming. And he, who can rise up and pronounce their
testimony false, must, under the circumstances, assume a daring, assurance, and responsibility at which a pious heart should be appalled.” So
(Apoc., vol. 3, p. 475), insisting upon the nearness of the Advent, he says: “Everywhere is the promised Apocalypse of the Lord Jesus represented
as close at hand, liable to occur at any time. The impression thus made upon the early Christians was, that Christ might come at any day or hour,
even in their own lifetime. Exactly when He would come, was nowhere told them. According to the Saviour’s word, it was not for them to know
the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power (Acts 1:6, 7). Nay, from that time to the present, and for all time the promise
itself comes to be fulfilled, the saying of Christ has held, and must hold, ‘Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no not the angels of heaven, but my
Father only,’ (Matt. xxiv. 36). It was useless, therefore, for them, and will continue to be useless for any one, to attempt to ascertain or determine,
how long it will be till Christ shall come again, or how soon all these things shall be accomplished. When once they begin to come to pass, men will
be able to tell where they are, and to know that the time has arrived; but, till then, they must needs remain in ignorance. All the instruction which we
have on the subject is, that what is foreshown will certainly come to pass; and that, from the beginning until the fulfilment commences, we are to be in
constant expectation of it any year, and day, any hour; to which the ever present and ever intensifying signs, together with the multiplied precepts of
the holy Scriptures, continually admonish us.” “But the much emphasized fact, put forth with all these promises and predictions of His return, that the
interval between us an their accomplishment dare never be extended in our estimate, and is always represented as brief, -so brief that we never
know but that another year, or month, or week, or day may reveal to us our Coming Lord,-ought not to be without the most quickening effect upon
our hearts and devotions.” “Ever, as the church moves on through time, and above all in the days in which we live, the next thing for every Christian
to be looking for in this world is the Coming of Christ to fulfill what is written in this Book. The Bible tells of nothing between us and that Day.”
The utterances and warnings, fashioned after those of Jesus and the apostles, of Dr. J. H. Brookes in his Maranatha, editorials in THE TRUTH,
tracts, etc., are well known to pre-millenarians and give no uncertain sound. Thus to illustrate: in vol. 16 of THE TRUTH, pp. 564-570, under the
heading “Christ’s Coming Always Imminent,” he commences: “All who read the New Testament carefully must perceive, that our Lord, and then the
Holy Ghost by the apostles, represent His Second Advent as possible at any time.” In support of this, he refers in detail to Matt. xxiv. 42-44; Rev.
iii. 1-3; Mark xiii. 33-37; Luke xii. 35-46, etc., and deduces from them the plain and self-evident meaning: “It is obvious that He wishes us to be on
the lookout for Him every hour.” He quotes Calvin to whom we have already referred, and presents Archb. Trench (On the Parables), as saying: “It
is a necessary element of the doctrine concerning the Second Coming of Christ, that it should be possible at any time, that no generation should
consider it improbable in theirs.” In THE TRUTH of vol. 4, p. 117, Dr. Brookes enforces the same view, and after some quotations from Trench
and Augustine, he aptly introduces the declaration of the Westminster Confession: :So will He have that day unknown to men, that they may shake
off all carnal security and be always watchful because they know not at what hour the Lord will come; and may be ever prepared to say, ‘Come,
Lord Jesus, come quickly, Amen.’” (Presbyterians, if faithful to their Confession, should assume this attitude of constant daily watching; some do
this, others evade it by interposing events.)
Rev. Dr. Horatius Bonar, in various writings, has expressed his faith in this imminency as demanded by the Scriptures. Thus to illustrate; he
(Morning of Joy, pp. 12-16) says: “This watching takes for granted the suddenness and uncertainty of the day of the Lord. It does not say, the Lord
must come in my day; but it says, the Lord may come in my day, therefore I must be on the lookout. This may come is the secret of a watching
spirit. Without it we cannot watch. We may love, hope, and wait, but we cannot watch. Our lamps are to be always trimmed. Why? Not merely
because the Bridegroom is to come, but because we know not how soon He may come. Our loins are to be always girt up. Why? Not simply
because we know there is to be a Coming, but because we know not when that coming is to be.” In the vindication of such a posture of daily
watching, in view of its power over the heart and life, among other most excellent things, he says: “I do not know how it may be with others, but I
feel that when I can say the Coming of the Lord draweth nigh, I have got a weapon in my hand of no common edge and temper. To be able to
announce ‘the Lord will come,’ is much; but to be able to say without the reservation of an interval, ‘He is at hand,’ is greatly more”
Such testimony abounds, making Rev. Dr. E. B. Elliott to end the conclusion of his Horae Apocalyptica, with these significant words: “At this present
closing crisis of the world, alike in the evidence of prophecy, in the signs of the times, in the general agitation of Christendom, and in the increased
and increasing expectancy of Him by His people, the Saviour’s voice seems to be heard, distinct and clear as perhaps never before, ‘Surely, I come
quickly.’ God grant that it may be the privilege of both reader and writer, whether summoned to meet Him by death or by the brightness of his own
personal Advent, to be enabled each one to answer the summons with the inmost soul’s welcome, ‘Amen.’ ‘Even so! come Lord Jesus!’” Or,
causing Rev. Dr. John Cumming (in his abstract of the course of twenty-six lectures, given in Exeter hall in 1848, using Rev. xvi. 15 as his text), to
declare: “Let me ask, therefore, when Christ shall come upon the lightning’s wing, or upon the eddying air, at midnight or at midday, if you feel that
you are prepared to meet Him? - to welcome Him? - to reign with Him? He may come next year, or in five, or in ten, or in twenty years: I cannot
say. It will be an hour when ye think not. Near, however, his Advent is – all chronology, and prophecy, and history prove it – it is time, therefore,
that we should set our house in order, and have our loins girt, and our lamps burning.” Or, urging Rev. Dr. Edward Bickersteth (Lectures during
lent, p. 345), to solemnly assert: “This day, then, is at hand. The judgment of the righteous. . . .is now very near. The time of judgment may come
before, in the ordinary course of nature, the younger amongst us might die. Never could it be so emphatically said as now, ‘Stablish your hearts, for
the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Behold the Judge standeth before the door.’ Live, then, in the constant contemplation of this coming
judgment. Act in the constant view of its solemn decisions. Dread, above all, dread being unprepared to meet your God. Desire, above all, desire
to be ready for the Coming of the Son of man.”
Such testimonies, showing how men occupy the commanded posture of constant daily watching, come from various sources. Thus D. L. Moody,
in one of his reported sermons, after urging the imminency of the Advent and the duty of looking for it, remarks: “I have heard Newman Hall say, that
he knew no reason why Christ might not come before he got through with his sermon.” So Henry Varley, discoursing on the Second Coming, and
its nearness, exclaims: “But I have words of blessed comfort and solemn warning; I shall not be surprised to see Jesus in person before this hair is
gray.” So Dr. Poor (Lange’s Com. 1 Cor., p. 26): “The Second Advent of Christ is possible for any generation, and ought constantly to be looked
for, desired, and prayed for.” So Dr. Wood (Last Things), in answering the question, whether any events are to intervene previous to the Lord’s
Coming, says: “It is enough to say, that while it seems to me that there may be some things to be done before Antichrist shall be destroyed, and,
therefore, before the Millennium shal actually commence, I have not been able to discover that there is one event of which we can say with certainty
that it must precede the appearing of the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and the gathering of His saints to meet Him in the air. This is the result of
long and patient inquiry on my part, and not merely the rash language of a moment of excitement. Most sincerely do I wish I could live more
constantly under the influence of this conviction, and that all my brethren were partakers along with me of the strong consolation it affords.” Again:
Cunninghame, in his “Fullness of Times,” “Visions,” etc., presses this fact of imminency, saying (Visions, p. 100): “If we who have marked every sign
in the spiritual horizon for a long series of years, were now asked, ‘Is there any sign of His Coming yet unaccomplished?’ we should be constrained
to answer, ‘To our view, not one sign remains unaccomplished.’ If we were further asked, ‘Shall He come this year?’ our answer would be, ‘We
know not; but this much we know and believe, that Christ is near at hand, even at the door.’”
We purposely give this common belief in the imminency, selected from men who widely differed from each other in treating the details of
prophecy and the order of fulfilment, but who were forced by precept and fulfilment to receive and teach it. In THE TRUTH, March, 1893, the
writer observes a long quotation taken from Rev. Dr. Charles H. Waller, one portion of which is so pertinent to the subject in hand, that a copy is
here given: “My brightest thoughts are inspired by the hope of the future, when I think that the appearance of our great Lord and Saviour cannot be
far off. The Parousia and the Millennial Kingdom are the subject of keenest interest to me in all Scripture, and no one thing cheers me more than
this, that I see absolutely nothing in sacred history or prophecy to bar the possibility of our Saviour’s return at any moment, which will be the
beginning of the end.” We may well conclude this by quoting the solemn appeal, based on the imminency of the Advent, made by Rev. Dr. Hugh
McNeile, in his Address or Charge to the Clergy: “My Reverend Brethren, watch, preach the Coming of Jesus, - I charge you, in the name of our
Coming Master, preach the Coming of Jesus. Solemnly and affectionately, in the name of God, I charge you preach the Coming of Jesus. ‘Watch
ye, therefore (for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at cock-crowing, or in the morning), lest coming
suddenly, He find you sleeping.’ Take care! ‘Watch I say unto you, I say unto all, watch.’”
eminent writers, periodicals, sermons, etc., insisting upon these salient points: (1.) The great nearness of the Advent; (2.) that it may occur at any
time; (3.) the duty of daily and hourly watching for it. With a large number, it forms, what they designate, “the generation of truth,” and they insist
upon every believer occupying the constant attitude of expectation described by Dr. Candlish (Sects. on Genesis, Sect. 17,): “Looking for Christ
now, is waiting for Him with ‘loins girt and lamps burning.’ It is watching also, as not knowing at what hour the Master may come; but yet ‘knowing
the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep.’” For they impress what Lange (Com. Matt., p. 443) calls, “the fearful solemnity of the
thought, that the Judge of the world may come at any moment.” As the utterly uncalled for impression is sought to be made (in order to make our
views odious), that no eminent or scholarly pre-millenarians hold to, and teach, this imminency, it seems right and proper to allow several of them,
men of note, to testify to their belief in their own words, to serve both as an illustration of the expressed faith of many others, and as a rebutting of the
unjustifiable disparagement of students of prophecy, whose goodness may be reluctantly allowed, but whose ability is not merely questioned but
positively denied.
Ponder, e.g., the plain and ringing testimony of Rev. Dr. J. A. Seiss (The Last Times, p. 302,): “For my own part, I will believe and preach, that
the Day of the Lord is at hand, and would rather encounter the sneers and vulgar taunts of all mankind, and be found ready when my Saviour comes
that to be accounted the most sober of theologians and enjoy the fame of the most revered favorite of popular laudation, and have that day find me
unfaithful to my duty, and unprepared for my change. I have been unable to fix upon any precise time. Some profess to know it; I do not. Christ
may come in three, seven or ten years; or not so soon. A few developments may make the matter certain. But I wish to bear my distinct testimony,
that I believe His Coming is at hand, and that we ought to be ready and expecting it any day and every day.” After referring to and giving the
statements of well-known writers, who advocated such an imminency, he continues (p. 304): “Let it not be said that these are fanatic ravings, or
loose vociferations, of ignorant people. They are the deliberately formed conclusions of our most competent, most pious, and most profound
investigators of God’s holy revelations. Men of the highest order of mind, scholars of the profoundest erudition, Christians of the most enlightened
piety, after years and years of patient, laborious, prayerful and independent study, and in the face of a speedily appearing Judge, have thus solemnly
proclaimed to the world, that we are now standing upon the very eve of the Saviour’s Coming. And he, who can rise up and pronounce their
testimony false, must, under the circumstances, assume a daring, assurance, and responsibility at which a pious heart should be appalled.” So
(Apoc., vol. 3, p. 475), insisting upon the nearness of the Advent, he says: “Everywhere is the promised Apocalypse of the Lord Jesus represented
as close at hand, liable to occur at any time. The impression thus made upon the early Christians was, that Christ might come at any day or hour,
even in their own lifetime. Exactly when He would come, was nowhere told them. According to the Saviour’s word, it was not for them to know
the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power (Acts 1:6, 7). Nay, from that time to the present, and for all time the promise
itself comes to be fulfilled, the saying of Christ has held, and must hold, ‘Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no not the angels of heaven, but my
Father only,’ (Matt. xxiv. 36). It was useless, therefore, for them, and will continue to be useless for any one, to attempt to ascertain or determine,
how long it will be till Christ shall come again, or how soon all these things shall be accomplished. When once they begin to come to pass, men will
be able to tell where they are, and to know that the time has arrived; but, till then, they must needs remain in ignorance. All the instruction which we
have on the subject is, that what is foreshown will certainly come to pass; and that, from the beginning until the fulfilment commences, we are to be in
constant expectation of it any year, and day, any hour; to which the ever present and ever intensifying signs, together with the multiplied precepts of
the holy Scriptures, continually admonish us.” “But the much emphasized fact, put forth with all these promises and predictions of His return, that the
interval between us an their accomplishment dare never be extended in our estimate, and is always represented as brief, -so brief that we never
know but that another year, or month, or week, or day may reveal to us our Coming Lord,-ought not to be without the most quickening effect upon
our hearts and devotions.” “Ever, as the church moves on through time, and above all in the days in which we live, the next thing for every Christian
to be looking for in this world is the Coming of Christ to fulfill what is written in this Book. The Bible tells of nothing between us and that Day.”
The utterances and warnings, fashioned after those of Jesus and the apostles, of Dr. J. H. Brookes in his Maranatha, editorials in THE TRUTH,
tracts, etc., are well known to pre-millenarians and give no uncertain sound. Thus to illustrate: in vol. 16 of THE TRUTH, pp. 564-570, under the
heading “Christ’s Coming Always Imminent,” he commences: “All who read the New Testament carefully must perceive, that our Lord, and then the
Holy Ghost by the apostles, represent His Second Advent as possible at any time.” In support of this, he refers in detail to Matt. xxiv. 42-44; Rev.
iii. 1-3; Mark xiii. 33-37; Luke xii. 35-46, etc., and deduces from them the plain and self-evident meaning: “It is obvious that He wishes us to be on
the lookout for Him every hour.” He quotes Calvin to whom we have already referred, and presents Archb. Trench (On the Parables), as saying: “It
is a necessary element of the doctrine concerning the Second Coming of Christ, that it should be possible at any time, that no generation should
consider it improbable in theirs.” In THE TRUTH of vol. 4, p. 117, Dr. Brookes enforces the same view, and after some quotations from Trench
and Augustine, he aptly introduces the declaration of the Westminster Confession: :So will He have that day unknown to men, that they may shake
off all carnal security and be always watchful because they know not at what hour the Lord will come; and may be ever prepared to say, ‘Come,
Lord Jesus, come quickly, Amen.’” (Presbyterians, if faithful to their Confession, should assume this attitude of constant daily watching; some do
this, others evade it by interposing events.)
Rev. Dr. Horatius Bonar, in various writings, has expressed his faith in this imminency as demanded by the Scriptures. Thus to illustrate; he
(Morning of Joy, pp. 12-16) says: “This watching takes for granted the suddenness and uncertainty of the day of the Lord. It does not say, the Lord
must come in my day; but it says, the Lord may come in my day, therefore I must be on the lookout. This may come is the secret of a watching
spirit. Without it we cannot watch. We may love, hope, and wait, but we cannot watch. Our lamps are to be always trimmed. Why? Not merely
because the Bridegroom is to come, but because we know not how soon He may come. Our loins are to be always girt up. Why? Not simply
because we know there is to be a Coming, but because we know not when that coming is to be.” In the vindication of such a posture of daily
watching, in view of its power over the heart and life, among other most excellent things, he says: “I do not know how it may be with others, but I
feel that when I can say the Coming of the Lord draweth nigh, I have got a weapon in my hand of no common edge and temper. To be able to
announce ‘the Lord will come,’ is much; but to be able to say without the reservation of an interval, ‘He is at hand,’ is greatly more”
Such testimony abounds, making Rev. Dr. E. B. Elliott to end the conclusion of his Horae Apocalyptica, with these significant words: “At this present
closing crisis of the world, alike in the evidence of prophecy, in the signs of the times, in the general agitation of Christendom, and in the increased
and increasing expectancy of Him by His people, the Saviour’s voice seems to be heard, distinct and clear as perhaps never before, ‘Surely, I come
quickly.’ God grant that it may be the privilege of both reader and writer, whether summoned to meet Him by death or by the brightness of his own
personal Advent, to be enabled each one to answer the summons with the inmost soul’s welcome, ‘Amen.’ ‘Even so! come Lord Jesus!’” Or,
causing Rev. Dr. John Cumming (in his abstract of the course of twenty-six lectures, given in Exeter hall in 1848, using Rev. xvi. 15 as his text), to
declare: “Let me ask, therefore, when Christ shall come upon the lightning’s wing, or upon the eddying air, at midnight or at midday, if you feel that
you are prepared to meet Him? - to welcome Him? - to reign with Him? He may come next year, or in five, or in ten, or in twenty years: I cannot
say. It will be an hour when ye think not. Near, however, his Advent is – all chronology, and prophecy, and history prove it – it is time, therefore,
that we should set our house in order, and have our loins girt, and our lamps burning.” Or, urging Rev. Dr. Edward Bickersteth (Lectures during
lent, p. 345), to solemnly assert: “This day, then, is at hand. The judgment of the righteous. . . .is now very near. The time of judgment may come
before, in the ordinary course of nature, the younger amongst us might die. Never could it be so emphatically said as now, ‘Stablish your hearts, for
the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Behold the Judge standeth before the door.’ Live, then, in the constant contemplation of this coming
judgment. Act in the constant view of its solemn decisions. Dread, above all, dread being unprepared to meet your God. Desire, above all, desire
to be ready for the Coming of the Son of man.”
Such testimonies, showing how men occupy the commanded posture of constant daily watching, come from various sources. Thus D. L. Moody,
in one of his reported sermons, after urging the imminency of the Advent and the duty of looking for it, remarks: “I have heard Newman Hall say, that
he knew no reason why Christ might not come before he got through with his sermon.” So Henry Varley, discoursing on the Second Coming, and
its nearness, exclaims: “But I have words of blessed comfort and solemn warning; I shall not be surprised to see Jesus in person before this hair is
gray.” So Dr. Poor (Lange’s Com. 1 Cor., p. 26): “The Second Advent of Christ is possible for any generation, and ought constantly to be looked
for, desired, and prayed for.” So Dr. Wood (Last Things), in answering the question, whether any events are to intervene previous to the Lord’s
Coming, says: “It is enough to say, that while it seems to me that there may be some things to be done before Antichrist shall be destroyed, and,
therefore, before the Millennium shal actually commence, I have not been able to discover that there is one event of which we can say with certainty
that it must precede the appearing of the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and the gathering of His saints to meet Him in the air. This is the result of
long and patient inquiry on my part, and not merely the rash language of a moment of excitement. Most sincerely do I wish I could live more
constantly under the influence of this conviction, and that all my brethren were partakers along with me of the strong consolation it affords.” Again:
Cunninghame, in his “Fullness of Times,” “Visions,” etc., presses this fact of imminency, saying (Visions, p. 100): “If we who have marked every sign
in the spiritual horizon for a long series of years, were now asked, ‘Is there any sign of His Coming yet unaccomplished?’ we should be constrained
to answer, ‘To our view, not one sign remains unaccomplished.’ If we were further asked, ‘Shall He come this year?’ our answer would be, ‘We
know not; but this much we know and believe, that Christ is near at hand, even at the door.’”
We purposely give this common belief in the imminency, selected from men who widely differed from each other in treating the details of
prophecy and the order of fulfilment, but who were forced by precept and fulfilment to receive and teach it. In THE TRUTH, March, 1893, the
writer observes a long quotation taken from Rev. Dr. Charles H. Waller, one portion of which is so pertinent to the subject in hand, that a copy is
here given: “My brightest thoughts are inspired by the hope of the future, when I think that the appearance of our great Lord and Saviour cannot be
far off. The Parousia and the Millennial Kingdom are the subject of keenest interest to me in all Scripture, and no one thing cheers me more than
this, that I see absolutely nothing in sacred history or prophecy to bar the possibility of our Saviour’s return at any moment, which will be the
beginning of the end.” We may well conclude this by quoting the solemn appeal, based on the imminency of the Advent, made by Rev. Dr. Hugh
McNeile, in his Address or Charge to the Clergy: “My Reverend Brethren, watch, preach the Coming of Jesus, - I charge you, in the name of our
Coming Master, preach the Coming of Jesus. Solemnly and affectionately, in the name of God, I charge you preach the Coming of Jesus. ‘Watch
ye, therefore (for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at cock-crowing, or in the morning), lest coming
suddenly, He find you sleeping.’ Take care! ‘Watch I say unto you, I say unto all, watch.’”