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LECTURE III.

MATTHEW Xxiv. 32–41.

"Now learn a parable of the fig-tree: When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. "Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not, until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

"Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken,

and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left."

THE great prophecy spoken on the Mount of Olives, has been our subject for two Sunday mornings. We have seen how, in answer to the question "What shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world?" the Redeemer named events not to be mistaken for signs of his reappearing; foretold, as an eminent occurrence to precede this re-appearance, the announcement of the Gospel to the nations universally; premonished his audience of destruction to Jerusalem, of impostures on the part of false Messiahs, of protracted curse and disaster to the Holy Land-all to be previous to his coming to dissolve the world; and then, proceeded to disclose certain splendid and awful circumstances to attend this advent. At this point in the grand prophecy-the point where we last Sunday left it, the Saviour makes

APPLICATION OF HIS DOCTRINE.

The period of the world at which we live, is winter time. There was once a summer

when our race was yet unfallen-when our first parents were in Paradise. That season, alas!

is long gone by.

and yellow leaf.

Now is the season of the sear

It is the period of storm and dreariness, of snow and cold. The Church is chilled: from time to time she is disturbed by tempests: her sun (the bright orb not of natural but of moral day) is distant; he throws upon her a radiance and heat which, however blessed, are far short of what she might enjoy were the source of light and warmth nearer.

By and by he will be nearer. will again come round.

Summer

For the promise is

"Unto you that fear my name, shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall." "Times of refreshing" are to come from the presence of the Lord when he shall send Jesus Christ.t That Redeemer reappearing-his presence will melt the frost, put an end to the storms, break the winter, under which his people have groaned.

How shall we know when this summer time * Malachi, iv, 2.

† Acts, iii, 19, 20.

is near? By what signs judge of the returning of the sun of righteousness? How, I answer, do you calculate the nearness of literal summer? Do you require an almanac? No. You know of certain events which precede the summer. Experience has taught you, that when the time of the singing of birds is nigh, the shrub grows green, the sap forces its way into the twig, new shoots appear on the tree. When in the course of any year you behold these tokens, you need no almanac-you want no monitor to tell youyou know of your own self that the genial season is at hand.

In a like way, you may judge of the coming of the figurative summer-the genial season of your Saviour's return to earth. For what was the tenor of that Saviour's prophecy? He named numerous antecedents to his reappearing -false Messiahs-commotions-the destruction of Jerusalem-the desolation of Judea-the universal preaching of his Gospel--and then, as he sat on Olivet, surrounded, it is like, with boughs beginning to blossom, he uttered "Now learn a parable of the fig tree. When its branch is yet

tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh. So likewise when ye shall see all these things, know that it (the summer promised to the Church) is near, even at the doors." "All these things."-Brethren, have you marked the fact that (with a single exception) every one of these things-the specified antecedents of the second coming, has already and before the birth of the oldest of us, come to pass? Does not history tell us of false Messiahs by the score; of commotions in nature and among nations, almost without number; of trials which have threatened the Church's constancy, too many to be counted? Is not Jerusalem and Judea desolate their sun darkened-their people under curse? What prelude-what single antecedent, remains to be accomplished except that foretold in the saying "This Gospel must first be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations ?" Good Lord, hasten this symptom! Make the times put forth this leaf of promise! And then-we ask it conditionally -we urge it, provided ourselves be of the number who shall be counted worthy to stand before