Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/243

 consider the occasion and purpose of the Lord's second coming.

Of these the Lord has given us a remarkable description in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew. He therein states as the occasion of His coming, a variety of calamities which would, in the process of time, set in upon the Church He was then engaged in planting. The disciples asked Him what should be the sign of His coming. His answer follows: "Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." This is the first general group of facts by which the Lord replied to the disciples' question; and it seems to us that their signification is not to be sought for in those outer events of the world which the letter apparently declares, but rather in those inner experiences of the Church, concerning which it is the main object of the Word to treat. Na-