SERMON V. THE SECOND ADVENT OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, "Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power."-2 THESS. i. 6-9, SERMON VI. THE SECOND ADVENT OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, "And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.”—Rev. xxi. 5, SERMON VII. THE SECOND ADVENT OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, "To him that overcometh, will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne."-REV. iii. 21, PAGE . 139 160 182 INTRODUCTION. This paper was sent some time ago to a periodical of limited circulation. It is thought to be an appropriate introduction to the following Sermons. THE HE most prominent feature in the volume of unfulfilled prophecy is the glorious advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is that great act which at once terminates the present and commences the next succeeding dispensation of Jehovah's dealings with this our world. As such, the views entertained concerning it must be of the first importance. This would have been so though there had never existed any difference of opinion upon the subject; but now, in addition to its intrinsic importance, considered absolutely, the coming of the Lord in glory has acquired a relative interest, maintained and magnified by the discordant opinions and statements which are daily reiterated in all the churches. Those opinions are so diametrically opposed, not merely in exaggerated expressions on either side, but in the very substance of the subject, that either the one party is deluded by the most visionary enthusiasm, or the other is sunk چی A into a deceitful infidelity. Truly, the matter is no light matter: there is either Antichristian imagination at work on the one side, perverting the Scriptures; or there is Antichristian scepticism at work on the other side, explaining away the Scriptures. Here is a man who believes that our Lord Jesus Christ will return to this earth in person before the millennium, while yet the inhabitants of the world generally are in their present condition and character similar to the state of things in the days of Noah, when the flood came. Connected with this, he believes that divine vengeance for abused privileges will be poured out suddenly upon Christendom; that the Jewish nation will be restored to the land of their forefathers; the heathen nations. blessed with the universal knowledge of the Lord; the earth renewed, and a glorious kingdom established therein, the metropolis of which will be the city of Jerusalem, and the king of which will be the Son of Mary, the Son of David, with the accomplished aggregate of His elect, risen, like Him, and reigning with Him. There is a man who believes that our Lord will not return in person to the earth till after the millennium, and within about four-and-twenty hours. of the final conflagration; when the earth shall be annihilated, or if not annihilated, he is not exactly sure what is to become of it; but he commonly interprets the scripture which says that "the earth shall be burned up as a scroll," to signify its annihilation. Connected with this, he believes that immediately upon our Lord's coming, all men shall stand in the judgment, the quick, and all the dead from the beginning of the world; that the unbelieving shall be cast, soul and body, into hell; and the faithful taken, soul and body, to heaven; without any distinction between Jew and Gentile, between Christendom and heathen lands, except that Christendom will be judged by the Scriptures, and the heathen by the light of conscience and the law of nature; and that, consequently, the ideas of a personal reign of Christ upon this earth, a restored Jewish nation, and a first resurrection, are nothing better than rabbinical fancies, long since exploded from the creed of rational Christians. Now, it is obvious that if the first man be right, the second man is an infidel! God hath spoken many things which he does not believe. If the second man be right, the first is a visionary madman, inventing a revelation for himself, and calling it God's word. The man who shall throw scriptural light upon the subject of our Lord's glorious advent, not by unproved assertions, however confident, but by detailed exposition and fair deduction; accompanied, not by contemptuous vituperation, but by affectionate persuasion-that man will confer a signal benefit upon the Church of Christ. I rejoice to find that so many men of God are now engaged in this long-neglected field; and as my contribution to their labours, I offer the following observations on our Lord's prophetic discourse, as recorded at large in the 24th chapter of St Matthew, compared |