HOMILETICS
SECT. XLIX.—THE TIME OF THE END. (Chap. Daniel 12:5-12.)
Daniel had just received orders from the angel to shut up the words of the vision, and to seal the book that contained them, “even to the time of the end.” As yet, however, there had been no distinct intimation when that time should be. Information on this point was greatly desired by Daniel, and was not to be entirely withheld from him. The time of Messiah’s advent had already been expressly indicated; after sixty-nine weeks of years He was to be cut off; and after that event, war and desolation was determined upon the people for the terrible guilt thus incurred. The time when the first captivity should terminate, and Israel be restored to their own land, had also been distinctly foretold; and the event had verified the prediction. Daniel was, therefore, naturally wishful to be informed as to the end of these predicted “wonders” which had just been communicated to him. Like the prophets in general, who “searched diligently what and what manner of time the Spirit that was in them did signify, when he testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow,” Daniel, having already learned the time of the sufferings, wished now to learn something regarding that of the glory that was to succeed them. This was now in part to be communicated; but in a way that should rather lead to the exercise of faith and patience than satisfy curiosity. The scattering and crushing of the power of the covenant but unbelieving and guilty people must first be fully accomplished. The time when that should be completed is indicated in the enigmatical terms with which the prophet’s ear was already acquainted, as that during which the saints were to be given into the hand of the little horn of the fourth universal empire. It was the mysterious “time, times, and half a time,” or three times and a half; but what that period exactly meant, or from what point it was precisely to take its commencement, definite information was not vouchsafed. Some indication, however, as to the length of the period was given. A thousand two hundred and ninety days, probably understood by Daniel as indicative of so many years, were to elapse, after a certain event yet to take place. That event is also named,—the taking away of the daily sacrifice, and the setting up of the abomination that maketh desolate. These terms also Daniel had already heard, and something of their meaning he had already seen in connection with his own personal history. Another period is mentioned, extending forty-five days beyond the preceding one; when all the indignation shall have entirely passed away, and when Israel, visited with Jehovah’s returning mercy, shall, according to the prophetic promise, have sung, “O Lord, I will praise Thee; for though Thou wast angry with me, Thine anger is turned away, and Thou comfortedst me” (Isaiah 12:1). Further information Daniel was not to receive. As God’s faithful and accepted servant, he was to go his way and rest in faith and patience till the end should come. What the angel had commanded Daniel to do, he now speaks of as done: “The words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.” Intimation, however, is given that, sealed as they are, “the wise” should “understand” (Daniel 12:9-10). They were “written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come” (1 Corinthians 10:11).
The information regarding the time of the end was communicated to Daniel in a peculiarly solemn and impressive manner. After the angel had ceased making his communication, Daniel continued to gaze on his celestial informant; when, as he did so, he saw other two, one on each side of the river, [364] on or over which the chief angel, or the man clothed in linen, stood, as Lord of it and what it represented. One of these, addressing the latter, probably for Daniel’s information, possibly for his own, asked, “How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?” [365] Upon which the chief angel, solemnly lifting up both his hands to heaven, and swearing by Him that liveth for ever and ever, as about to make some most important statement, deeply affecting not Daniel only but the Church at large, and calling for the most deep and devout attention to it, declares that “it shall be for a time and times and a half; [366] and when He shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, [367] all these things shall be finished” (Daniel 12:5-7). Daniel, not understanding the precise meaning of the statement, ventures, in his earnestness, to ask for himself, “O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?” Daniel, however, is forbidden to inquire further, and is only assured that though the troubles of his people should be many, the end should be the purification of the wise, who should also understand the vision. Additional information, however, is vouchsafed; and then Daniel is bidden to go his way till the end be, as he should rest and stand in his lot “at the end of the days” (Daniel 12:10-13).
[364] “Upon the waters of the river.” Keil remarks that the river, which, according to chap. Daniel 10:4, is the Hiddekel or Tigris, is here called יְאֹר (yeor), a name only given in the Old Testament to the Nile; as if to indicate that, as the angel of the Lord once smote the waters of the Nile to ransom His people out of Egypt, so in the future shall He calm and suppress the waves of the river which in Daniel’s time represented the might of the world-kingdom; the river Hiddekel being thus a figure of the Persian monarchy, through whose territory it flowed. The other two angels who appear on the banks of the river, he views as standing by the side of the Angel of the Lord, represented as the ruler of the Hiddekel, as servants prepared to execute His will. Brightman observes that, while in the first vision, the four winds of heaven strove on the great sea, and four great beasts came up out of it, the matters there treated being in regard to all peoples, which were to be described with their four universal empires; the second was given at Ulai, no sea nor any famous river, as it treated only of some particular nations; and the last on Hiddekel, a particular river also, but one that flowed out of Paradise; the matter treated pertaining to a holy and elect people, whose origin was the infinite grace of a merciful God. He views the man clothed in linen as Christ Himself, the only Priest who, as the Spirit moved upon the waters of chaos (Genesis 1:2), sustaining them in that confusion by His mighty power, watches over the affairs of His Church to preserve and support it. He thinks the other two on the banks of the river are added for confirmation of the whole matter, every word being, according to Deuteronomy 19:15, established in the mouth of two or three witnesses, the one of these waiting in silence and modesty, while the other speaks, these holy beings having the Author of order ever before their eyes. Willet observes that the most general opinion regarding the angel on the river is, that it was Gabriel. So De Lyra, Pererius, Bullinger, &c. His own view, however, is that it was Christ Himself, the Palmoni or Certain One, in chap. Daniel 8:13, who, as the “Wonderful,” hath “secrets in account and number.”
[365] “How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?” Kranichfeld reads, “When shall the end of these things be?” Keil, however, thinks that the question rather is, How long continues the end of these things,—Heb.,—“Till when is the end?” Not, How long shall they continue? but, How long shall the end of them do so? the end being the “time of the end” prophesied of from chap. Daniel 11:40 to Daniel 12:3, with all that shall happen in it; the wonders being particularly the unheard-of oppressions described in chap. Daniel 11:39, &c. Brightman thinks the “end of these wonders” shall be when the blasphemous kingdom of the Turks shall come to an end, God then making an end of “scattering the power of the holy people.” Auberlen views this period as referring to the time of Antichrist, and pointing back to chap. Daniel 7:25, which refers to the same period, as the time of the world-power, in which the earthly kingdoms rule over the heavenly; and mentioned in the Apocalypse as the times of the Gentiles, extending from the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans to the second advent of Christ.
[366] “A time, times, and a half.” Keil thinks that the definition of time here given leads to the conclusion that the answer of the angel refers not to the period of persecution under Antiochus, but to that under the last enemy, the Antichrist; as it accurately agrees with the period of time named in chap. Daniel 7:25, as that of the duration of the enemy of God who should arise out of the fourth world-kingdom. Three and a half times, according to the prophecy of chaps. Daniel 7:25, and Daniel 9:26-27, are given, he thinks, for the fullest unfolding of the power of the last enemy of God till his destruction; and when, in this time of unparalleled oppression, the natural strength of the holy people shall be completely broken to pieces, then shall these terrible things have reached their end. As regards the place here, and the periods named in Revelation 13:5; Revelation 11:2-3, where forty months and 1260 days are used interchangeably, he thinks it is questionable whether the weeks and the days represent the ordinary weeks of the year and days of the week, and whether these periods of time are to be taken chronologically. He thinks the choice of the chronologically indefinite expression “time” shows that a chronological determination of the period is not in view, but that the designation of time is to be understood symbolically. The three and a half times, he observes, are, beyond doubt, the half of “seven times;” but, in his opinion, they only indicate a testing period, a period of judgment, which, according to Matthew 24:22, Proverbs 10:27, will for the elect’s sake be intercepted and shortened. He thinks, however, they refer to a period still future. Several modern interpreters, on the other hand, especially in Germany, refer the period to the duration of the oppression of the Jews under Antiochus Epiphanes. Mr. Habershon (Dissertation on the Prophecies) writes: “It was the opinion of the celebrated Mr. Mede that the time, times, and a half, of Daniel and John, was but the bisection of a complete number of seven times, which he called the Sacred Calendar of the Great Almanack of Prophecy; and which he thought all mention of time in the Scriptures had reference.” The same writer thinks the “time of the end” to signify the same point of time as the termination of these “times;” the “wonders” taking place not only at the fall of the Little Horn of popery but at the restoration of the Jews. Faber observes: “At the close of the self-same period of 1260 years (the time, times, and a half), we are taught by Daniel that the Jews are to be restored.… At the outflowing of the last vial, the 1260 years apparently expire, and the restoration of Judah commences. To this period, therefore, we must ascribe the expedition of the Wilful King; and at the same period the Stone begins to smite the Image upon his feet, and the Ancient of Days to sit in judgment upon the Roman beast and his tyrannical little horn.… During this period of unexampled trouble, which so awfully terminates with the slaughter of Megiddo, we are expressly taught by Daniel, in perfect harmony with the other inspired prophets, that the restoration of Judah shall take place.” Faber, after Mede, recognises the captivity of Israel under the four successive hostile monarchies, as forming the complete period or Great Calendar of Prophecy; and assumes as a datum the number of “seven times” in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the tree, which he considers to mark the duration of the four tyrannical monarchies; the period having a double application to Judah and Israel, while each application has a double commencement and a double termination, the last of these terminations being in the Millennium.
[367] “To scatter the power of the holy people.” נַפֵּץ יַד (nappets yadh), literally, to “shatter or crush the hand.” Keil observes that the expression נַפֵּץ (nappets) primarily denotes to beat to pieces, to shatter, as in Psalms 2:9; Psalms 137:9; and is the meaning to be given to it in the text, as has been done by Hengstenberg, Maurer, Auberlen, and others. יַד (yadh), hand, is the emblem of active power; and the shattering of the hand he views as the complete destruction of power to work, and the placing in a helpless and powerless condition, as in Deuteronomy 32:36, referring to the crushing by Antichrist of the holy people in the last great tribulation. Jerome understands the oppression of God’s people under the hand of Antichrist, this general dispersion of them being given as a sign of the end of these things. Calvin understands the entire weakening of their strength through persecution.
In indicating the time of the end, the man clothed in linen mentions, first, a period that should elapse during which a certain purpose of Jehovah regarding the chosen people should be accomplished (Daniel 12:7); secondly, a period of time that should be reckoned from the occurrence of certain events (Daniel 12:11). We notice both—
I. The period to elapse during which a certain purpose of Jehovah should be accomplished. The purpose referred to is the scattering or crushing of the power of the holy people, that is, the Jews, so called as having been taken into covenant with Jehovah, who declared that they should be to Him a holy people or nation (Exodus 19:5-6; Leviticus 20:26; Deuteronomy 7:6). In case of His people’s continued disobedience, He threatened to “break the pride of their power” and to “scatter them among the heathen” (Leviticus 26:18-19; Leviticus 26:33); both apparently indicated in the text, “when He shall have accomplished to scatter or crush the power of the holy people.” We have seen how this scattering or crushing commenced after the rejection and cutting off of the Messiah, when, according to the prophecy, “the people of the prince that should come—the Romans under whose subjection they then were—should destroy the city and the sanctuary,” and the end should be with a flood, even war and desolations determined upon them (chap. Daniel 9:26). Paul speaks of them as already in his day broken off and cast away (Romans 11:15-20). They have been so up to the present time; a nation scattered and peeled, tribes of the wandering foot and weary breast. Even now thousands of them are said to contemplate leaving Germany, from whence they have been all but expelled, in order to return to Spain, from whence their persecuted fathers fled for refuge to Germany several centuries ago. The scattering and crushing of their power is still going on, their own country being still in the hands of the Gentiles. But this is to have an end; and when this purpose of chastening shall have been accomplished, when Jehovah shall see that “their power is gone,” and they “accept the punishment of their iniquity,” and acknowledge their guilt in rejecting and crucifying the Lord’s Anointed, the fulfilment of His gracious promises regarding them shall begin (Leviticus 26:40-45; Deuteronomy 32:36). “If the casting away of them be—as it has been—the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?” (Romans 11:15). The period during which this scattering or crushing was to take place is the enigmatical one already occurring in the prophecy (chap. Daniel 7:27), “a time, times, and a half,” or three and a half times. From chap. Daniel 11:13 (margin) we may gather that the term “time” was understood to indicate a year; “at the end of times, even years,” was the language of the angel. A year was usually reckoned as containing 360 days; so that the period in the text would be that which we twice meet with in the Revelation, a thousand two hundred and sixty days (Revelation 11:3; Revelation 12:6); or, according to prophetical reckoning, each day being considered a year, 1260 years; a period also spoken of in the Revelation as a time, times, and half a time (Revelation 12:14). The two periods thus similarly described in the two Revelations of the Old and New Testament, as of the same length, are probably one and the same, commencing and concluding together, as it is certain that they possess the same character of suffering, persecution, and oppression of the people of God. Its application to the duration of the Little Horn of the Fourth Beast or Roman empire, we have already considered under chap. Daniel 7:27. Although the temporal power of the Little Horn appears since 1870 to be a thing of the past, still its spiritual power continues; and it is certain that the scattering and crushing of the covenant people is not yet at an end. How near, however, in both cases the consummation may be, time alone will show. Far distant, it would seem, it cannot well be. O Israel, return unto the Lord, from whom ye have revolted. “Repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, in order that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and He may send again Jesus, who before was preached unto you; whom the heavens must receive until the times of the restoration of all things” (Acts 3:19-21, R.V.)
The period mentioned in Daniel 12:11, “twelve hundred and ninety days,” is doubtless the same three times and a half with the addition of thirty more; while the third period (Daniel 12:12), or the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days, is a still further extension of it by forty-five; these additions or extensions having probable reference to what should take place between the termination of the scattering and crushing of Israel’s power in their deliverance out of the great tribulation (Daniel 12:1), and their full enjoyment of the blessings promised in connection with their return to their Saviour and King. [368]
[368] “A thousand two hundred and ninety days; the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.” Mr. Faber thinks that though the restoration of Judah takes place at the close of the 1260 years, or “a time, times, and a half,” the “lost sheep of the house of Israel remain still to be gathered.” He considers the circumstance of the two-fold restoration the reason why the angel divides the seventy-five days or years beyond the 1260 into thirty and forty-five, the former being the period for the restoration of Judah, the latter for that of Israel, the whole seventy-five belonging exclusively to the period of the last vial in the Apocalypse. Bishop Newton considers that it is to the three great events of the fall of Antichrist, the restoration of the Jews, and the beginning of the Millennium, that the three different dates of 1260, 1290, and 1335 years are to be referred. Dr. Cox observes that a further period of thirty days or years is here added, as perhaps marking the season during which the predicted overthrow of the Antichristian powers shall be accomplished, or, as some suppose, the restoration of the Jews. “We presume not to decipher the particular events of the third era of forty-five additional years, producing a period of 1335, the close of the prophetic revelations. As he is pronounced ‘blessed’ who attains that age, we must conclude that it will be the last and most glorious manifestation of God to mankind.” Keil thinks that Daniel 12:11-12 treat of an earlier period of oppression than Daniel 12:7, and that thus the 1290 and 1335 days are not reckoned after the three and a half times. He thinks also that they are not to be reckoned chronologically, but interpreted symbolically; days being used instead of times, to indicate that the time of the tribulation is not one of an immeasurable extent, but limited to a period of moderate duration, which is exactly measured out by God; the 1290 days denoting in general the period of Israel’s affliction on the part of Autiochus Epiphanes, by the taking away of the Mosaic ordinances of worship and the setting up of the worship of idols, but without giving a statement of the duration of this oppression which can be chronologically reckoned. The second definition of time, 1335 days, by which the period is increased by forty-five, he thinks more strictly represents the same idea of a limited period of duration; the oppression wholly ceasing with the expiry of that extended period. Several modern interpreters reckon these two latter periods from chap. Daniel 8:14; Kliefoth remarking that we know from the book of Maccabees that the consecration of the temple took place on the 25th day of the month Kisleu, in the 148th year of the Seleucidan era, and that Antiochus died in the year following, which he thinks may be the end of the 1290 days, while the 1335, or forty-five days longer, reach to the entire cessation of the persecution. Junius and others referred these forty-five days to the time between the restoration of the Jewish worship and the death of Antiochus. The Duke of Manchester (Finished Mystery), with some others, regards the “time of the end” as a period probably of only 1290 or 1335 literal days, ending with the general resurrection. Mr. Habershon thinks that the events to take place during those seventy-five years, about which nothing is said in the vision, correspond with those things which, in Revelation 10., were uttered by the seven thunders, but which the Apostle was to seal up and not to write; the information not concerning the disciples of Jesus, who would be taken out of the reach of those troubles, as Noah was from the deluge, Lot from Sodom, and the Christians from Jerusalem in the siege. Some suppose that of these additional seventy-five years, the first thirty were to be taken up with the outpouring of the vials upon apostate Christendom, after the papal power was brought to an end, and the remaining forty-five with the troubles consequent on the rise and doings of the infidel Antichrist, terminating with the battle of Armageddon. So Mr. Irving, who says: “Knowing as we do from the former vision that the 1260 years bring the Little Horn’s power to an end, and introduce the awful scene of the judgment of the Beast which obeyed his blasphemy, it must necessarily be that these thirty years should run over into that period of judgment; but whether they conclude it or not, no one has a right to declare, because it is not so declared, nor are any grounds revealed for concluding or even conjecturing so. But on the other hand, from the wording of the following verse, I think there was reason for concluding or conjecturing the contrary. ‘Blessed is he that waiteth,’ &c. The language, waiting and coming to, seems to me to imply the exercise of tried patience and the escape from imminent peril, and carrieth to my ear a certain note of trouble, which being safely passed, all will be well, and the blessed time and condition of the world attained to.… And I think that the 1290 days doth not announce the completion of anything; but doth announce the woeful beginning of a long day of trouble and desolation to the Church, whereof the period 1335 announceth not only the complete determination, but the beginning of another period of universal blessedness.” De Lyra, Pintus, and other Roman Catholic writers apply the 1290 days to the reign of Antichrist, which they consider equivalent to the time, times, and half a time, or three and a half years. Jerome considers the additional forty-five days to be between the death of Antichrist and the coming of Christ in glory. So Pererius and the Roman Catholics in general. Calvin, who says he is no conjuror in numerical calculations, thinks that the 1290 days indicate the unlimited period of Antichrist’s long reign, and that the additional forty-five is no certain definite time, but is intended to intimate that the godly should wait with patience, though the time of deliverance seemed long. Melanchthon puts both the numbers together, making seven years and three months, ending with the overthrow of Nicanor, the general of Antiochus. Osiander applies the 1290 days to the profession of religion under the papal Antichrist from its beginning to its end; and thinks the 1335 years mark the continuance of the kingdom of Antichrist, of which the beginning is uncertain. Bullinger refers the 1290 days to the time of the Jewish war begun by Vespasian in the fourteenth of Nero, and ended in the second year of Vespasian, after continuing about three years and a half. He thinks the additional forty-five days began from the taking of Jerusalem by the Romans, multitudes of the Jews being then sold into captivity and subjected to other miseries. Mr. Bosanquet remarks that when the Wilful King is interpreted as representing the personification of the Mahomedan apostasy, these periods of 1290 and 1335 days or years necessarily count from his time even beyond the present days.
II. The period of time to be reckoned from the occurrence of certain events (Daniel 12:11). This period is that just mentioned, twelve hundred and ninety days, or thirty days (or years) beyond the 1260, or the “time, times, and half a time.” The events from which this period is to be reckoned are spoken of as the taking away of the daily sacrifice, [369] and the setting up of the abomination that maketh desolate. [370] We have to inquire when these events took place. But first we have to consider what the expressions mean. We have had them before (chap. Daniel 8:11, Daniel 11:31). Literally and primarily in relation to Israel, they are understood to indicate the cessation, or rather violent removal, of the Jewish worship as prescribed in the law of Moses, and the introduction of a false and idolatrous worship, under whatever form, in its stead. This took place first under Antiochus Epiphanes, and afterwards again under the Romans and their successors the Mahomedans, as it is this day. In relation to the Church, or the Israel of the New Testament, the expressions would denote the violent removing or changing of the Christian worship, and corrupting the great doctrine of the one sacrifice for sin, with the substituting of an unscriptural creed and idolatrous worship in their place; things which we have already seen were done by the Little Horn, both of the Fourth and the Third Beast (chap. Daniel 7:25, Daniel 8:11). In relation to the chosen people of the Old Covenant to whom the prophecy seems to have a special reference, it is more difficult to point to a period when these predicted events took place, and from which the 1290 days or years were to take their commencement. It is remarkable, however, as was formerly noted, that the oppression of the Church under the Little Horn of the Fourth or Roman empire, viewed as the Papacy, commenced almost simultaneously with the oppression of Israel by the Little Horn of the Third or Grecian Empire, viewed as Mahomedanism; namely, soon after the beginning of the seventh century; while it is certain that both the Papacy and Mahomedanism have been equally oppressive to the Church of the New Testament and that of the Old. And it appears equally certain that the faithful in both the Old and New Covenants will be the objects of the wrath of the Antichrist under the last or infidel form which he seems destined to assume, when he shall “go forth in great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many” (chap. Daniel 11:45).
[369] “The daily sacrifice shall be taken away.” Irving, with many others, views the taking away of the daily sacrifice as equivalent to the violent putting down of the true worship of Jehovah, which was done by the papal power. “In the interpretation of prophecy, respect ought to be had continually to the form of religious truth and religions language in which the prophet and the people to whom he prophesied were instructed, and in which they could be intelligently addressed. That is, we ought to put ourselves as much as we can into their condition of knowledge, in order to understand what the words spoken to them of the Lord signify. Now to the mind of an Israelite, trained under the dispensation of Moses, the taking away of the daily sacrifice from the temple on Mount Zion, signifies no less than the violent putting down of the worship of Jehovah; and the setting up of ‘the abomination that maketh desolate,’ or ‘that astonisheth,’ signified the placing, in its stead, of some form of blasphemous and idolatrous worship. This language, therefore, is applicable only to those great invasions of the Church, whereby the true worship is abolished, and a false one substituted in its stead.” Irving regards the taking away of the daily sacrifice in the text as ascribed to the Wilful King or infidel Antichrist (chap. Daniel 11:31), and understands it of his reconstituting “the papal abomination within the bounds of his empire after it had been for many years abolished.” Brightman, on the other hand, understands the abolition of the ceremonial law of sacrifices accomplished by Christ through His death.
[370] “The abomination that maketh desolate.” Bishop Newton understood the desolation here referred to as that of the Eastern Church by Mahomet. “That same time, therefore, is prefixed for the desolation and oppression of the Eastern Church, as for the tyranny of the Little Horn (chap. Daniel 7:25) in the Western Church; and it is wonderfully remarkable that the doctrine of Mahomet was first forged in Mecca, and the supremacy of the pope was established by virtue of a grant from the wicked tyrant Phocas, in the very same year of Christ, 606.” He adds: “The ‘setting up of the abomination of desolation’ appears to be a general phrase, and comprehensive of various events. It is applied by the writer of the first book of the Maccabees (1Ma. 1:54) to the profanation of the temple by Antiochus, and his setting up the image of Jupiter Olympius upon the altar of God. It is applied by our Saviour (Matthew 24:15) to the destruction of the city and temple by the Romans under the conduct of Titus in the reign of Vespasian. It may for the same reason be applied to the Roman emperor Adrian’s building a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus in the same place where the temple of God had stood, and to the misery of the Jews, and the desolation of Judea that followed. It may with equal justice be applied to the Mahomedans invading and desolating Christendom, and converting the churches into mosques; and this latter event seemeth to have been particularly intended in this passage.” Brightman, as well as Calvin, understands by ‘the abomination that maketh desolate’ the adulterate and counterfeit worship set up by the Jewish nation since they rejected Christ, and which is a most loathsome abomination before God. He reads שׁוֹמֵם (shomem) as passive, “made desolate,” denoting the time when Christ utterly abolished that impious manner of sacrificing, or the ceremonial worship; this abomination standing in the holy place up to the time of Vespasian, when the temple was destroyed, and being especially put an end to in the time of the emperor Julian (about the year a.d. 360), when, as the historian Socrates says, the temple was utterly overthrown, instead of the new edifice being prepared; so that nothing after that was ever attempted, the abomination being made utterly desolate. Bullinger understood this ‘abomination’ of the laying waste of the nation and city of the Jews; for example, the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. Osiander, like Irving and others, understands it of the idolatrous service introduced into the Church by the Roman Antichrist. Willet again refers all to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes historically, though typically to that of Antichrist. That the application of the text by Osiander and others to the papal corruptions is not without solid grounds, will appear when it is remembered that article 4 of the creed of Pope Pius is that “in the mass is offered to God a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead;” that article 5 is, “I profess that in the most holy sacrifice of the eucharist there is truly, really, and substantially the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ;” that article 7 declares that “the saints reigning together with Christ are to be venerated and invoked;” and that in article 8 it is said, “I most firmly assert that the images of Christ, of the mother of God ever virgin, and also of other saints, may be had and retained, and that due honour and veneration is to be given them.” The practice is accordingly. The following tragical story, taken from an American paper, is told in the Newcastle Chronicle of March 25, 1881:—“The Italian barque Ajace, from Antwerp, bound for an American port, went ashore during a storm on the 4th inst. (March 1881), on Cooney Island, and was lost with all hands, except one man named Pietro Sala. The crew consisted of fourteen, composed of Italians, Austrians, and one Greek. The survivor states that after the vessel struck, the officers and sailors lost all self-control. The captain offered a bottle of brandy to the crew, telling them to drink and die like men who were not afraid of death. The men were too much excited to pay attention to the captain’s offer. He then took a small image of Madonna (the Virgin Mary), which he held aloft in both hands, and the crew all knelt before it, shrieking, and crying, and imploring the Madonna to rescue them. Another man caught the image from the steward’s hands, and carried it into the sea. Then the steward cried out aloud, ‘The Madonna has deserted us; there is no hope;’ and pulling out his sheath-knife, cut his throat, declaring that he would rather die by his own hand than be drowned. The sight of his blood, as it spurted from his neck and fell on the deck where he had fallen, seemed to madden some of the crew; and immediately the carpenter, a Neapolitan, and a Genoese lad, drew their knives and followed his example.”
From the whole passage we may make the following reflections and inferences:—
1. The passage appears to teach the duty of taking a lively interest in the future of the Church and in what God has been pleased to reveal in His word regarding the end and the time of it. This is indicated in the very fact that such revelations have been communicated to the Church. These have certainly been given to be studied and inquired into. Christians might possibly give too much attention to such subjects, but it is much easier to give too little. The passage before us exhibits the interest which the angels take in the Church’s future, and in the things revealed regarding it, with the time of their occurrence. It is an angel that asks, “How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?” (Daniel 12:6.) The question suggestive, whether we regard it as asked by the angel for his own information or that of the prophet. When angels are concerned about the future of the Church, its own intelligent members may well be so. Not only into the sufferings of Christ, but the glory that should follow them, the angels desire to look (1 Peter 1:12). The manner in which the exalted personage clothed in linen, and standing over the river, gives the information sought regarding the end, suggestive of the same duty. The information is given by him in the form of a most solemn attestation; lifting up both his hands to heaven, and swearing by Him that liveth for ever and ever (Daniel 12:7). Finally, the same thing seems to be taught by Daniel, who, as if not yet satisfied—such, as Brightman quaintly observes, being the difference of perception in the heavenly and earthly schools—inquires, “O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?” (Daniel 12:8.) This question, so far from being discouraged, is answered by still fuller information on the subject (Daniel 12:11). Indifference on the subject of unfulfilled prophecy in relation to the Church and the world, in the presence of these facts, should hardly be found in the clearer dispensation of the Spirit, when that divine Teacher is promised, among other purposes, to show us “things to come” (John 16:13); still more at a period when we may well believe that the things promised must be hastening to their fulfilment. It is of such prophecy that the Apostle speaks as “a light shining in a dark place,” to which we “do well to take heed until the day dawn” (2 Peter 1:19). It cannot, one should think, be becoming on the part of believers, nor either pleasing or honouring to the Master, to be in any degree indifferent to that which awakened so much interest in heaven,—the unsealing of the book which contained the disclosures of the Church’s future and the things of the end, and which it was the sole prerogative and glory of the Lamb slain to take and unseal (Revelation 5:1, &c.) “There is a point to which we may legitimately pursue our inquiries, but where it becomes us to pause. Prophecy is intended to guide us along the bright outlines of the future, but not to make us historians by anticipation; to impart sufficient for the needful instruction and encouragement of the people of God, amidst the tribulation of these latter days, which will precede the ultimate triumph and glory of the Church; but not to acquaint them with the secret intentions of God with regard to the minuter character of those events which are written in the book of His decrees. To steer between the Scylla and Charybdis of a desponding and neglectful indifference to prophecy, and a dogmatic interpretation, is an important attainment; and is precisely that course which tends to tranquillise the spirit amidst surprising changes, and sustain it by pleasing hopes” (Cox). “As God revealed to the prophets who prophesied of the grace that should come to us, ‘the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow,’ that they might search and inquire ‘what and what manner of time the Spirit of Christ who was in them did signify;’ so in the times of the accomplishment, we who are living are not exempted from searching and inquiring, but are led by the prophetic word to consider the ‘signs of the times’ in the light of this word; and from that which is already fulfilled, as well as from the nature and manner of the fulfilment, to confirm our faith, for endurance amid the tribulations which prophecy has made known to us; that God, according to His eternal gracious counsel, has measured them, according to their beginning, middle, and end, that thereby we should be purified and guarded for the eternal life” (Keil).
2. It should be the comfort of the Church to know that the time of the end, about which so much interest was felt both by the angels and the “man greatly beloved,” cannot now be far distant. It seems impossible but that the period appointed and predicted for the “scattering and crushing the power of the holy people,” should be near its expiry. [371] For eighteen centuries has that scattering and crushing been going on; and still Jerusalem is trodden under foot of the Gentiles, and the land, given to Abraham and his seed for an everlasting inheritance, lies well-nigh desolate in the hand of their adversaries, while they themselves are still shut up in unbelief. Israel was to be punished “seven times” for their sins. We may well believe that these times of chastening and abandonment are well nigh at an end. Everything indicates that such is the case. Signs of an approaching crisis in the history of Israel, the Church, and the world, are far from being wanting. The great river Euphrates—the Turkish empire—is being rapidly “dried up, that the way of the kings of the East,” whoever they may be—believed by many to be Israel themselves—“may be prepared” (Revelation 16:12). And we know that the drying up of that river synchronises with the time of the end, when Antichrist shall be overthrown, Israel be restored, and “the mystery of God be finished, according to the good tidings which He declared to His servants the prophets” (Revelation 10:7, R.V.) Simultaneously with the drying up of the Euphrates, the beloved disciple saw “coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits as it were frogs; for they are spirits of devils, working signs; which go forth unto the kings of the whole world, to gather them together to the battle of the great day of God Almighty” (Revelation 16:13-14, RV.) While this was going, the voice came forth from Him whose coming again was promised on the day He went up: “Behold I come as a thief; blessed is he who watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.” The events of the last hundred years might justly lead to the conclusion that we had fallen upon “the time of the end,” especially when predicted chronological periods seemed to be probably drawing near their completion. Such events as the French Revolution of 1789, with the shaking of every Continental throne that ensued upon it; the gradual decay and diminution of the Turkish empire, from 1820 till now when the Turkish vizier gives it as his opinion that, if Turkey engages in a war with Cyprus, it will be the last time she will ever fight in Europe; the entire cessation of the pope’s temporal power in 1870; the unexampled increase of knowledge in general, and diffusion of the Gospel in particular, with the special attention given to the word of prophecy; and, finally, the fearful spread of infidelity at home and abroad;—these should be sufficient to convince us, with the Bible in our hands, that our lot is fallen in days when the time of the end is not far distant.
[371] “He shall have accomplished to scatter,” &c. It is not a little remarkable that at the time of the French Revolution, when many believed that prophecy was receiving its fulfilment, there were not wanting appearances of the probable termination of the scattering of Israel’s power. Milman, in his History of the Jews, writes: “In the year 1780, the avant-courier of the Revolution, Joseph II., ascended the throne (of Austria). Among the first measures of this restless reformer was a measure for the amelioration of the condition of the Jews.” In his Edict of Toleration he “opened to the Jews the schools and the universities of the empire, and gave them the privilege of taking degrees as doctors in philosophy, medicine, and civil law.… It threw open the whole circle of trade to their speculations, permitting them to establish manufactures of all sorts, excepting gunpowder, and to attend fairs in towns where they were not domiciliated.… It gave them equal rights, and subjugated them to the same laws as the Christians.” Matters are now changed, however, with the Jews in the German empire. After nearly a century of comparative external prosperity, though as yet, alas! far from having returned to the Lord their God and to the true David their King, the popular voice is now lifted, in Prussia especially, to demand their expulsion.—According to an article in the British and Foreign Evangelical Review, there are only about 21,000 Jews at present in the Holy Land, living mostly in the rabbinical cities—Jerusalem, Saffed, Tiberias, and Hebron; about 1500 are found in the commercial centres, but the largest number, about 1300, in Jerusalem.
3. Our duty to prepare ourselves for the changes that may speedily come, and to help in preparing others. In connection with the casting off of the Jews, the Gentiles would have their times of Gospel privilege. The casting away of Israel was to be the reconciling of the world, and has been so. These times of the Gentiles have been going on for eighteen centuries. But they were not to be for ever. The time was to come when the Gentiles should be dealt with for their use or abuse of the privileges of the kingdom of God, as Israel had been after their rejection of their King and Saviour. That King was to come again, and reckon with His servants to whom He had intrusted His talents. “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory,” so that “every eye shall see Him, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thessalonians 1:7-8). Such a time of reckoning with those who have possessed the Gospel and the privileges of the kingdom, awaits the Gentiles as truly as it did Israel. An account must be taken of the manner in which that Gospel has been received. What if the Spirit of grace should be withdrawn from Christendom as He was from Israel, and, for the misuse of the Gospel, the Gentile churches be judicially given over to a spirit of unbelief and impenitence, so as to become the willing followers of Antichrist and partake of his doom? (2 Thessalonians 2:11-12.) “When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” “Be not highminded, but fear; for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee” (Romans 11:20-21). “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation:” although that day with the Gentiles is now hastening to its close. “To-day, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” He that shall come will come, and will not tarry. “Behold I come quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give unto every man according as his work shall be” (Revelation 22:12). To all who accept His Gospel and receive Himself as their King and Saviour, He assigns their work till He shall come. “Ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and in Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth.” “The Spirit and the Bride say, Come; and let him that heareth say, Come” (Acts 1:8; Revelation 22:17). Have we received that Saviour, and are we faithfully endeavouring to do the work He assigns us? The door of the Ark still stands open; let us make sure of entering it ourselves, and endeavour to persuade our kindred, and as many others as possible, to enter it along with us.
HOMILETICS
SECT. L.—THE CONTRAST. (Chap. Daniel 12:10.)
This verse stands, like many in the book of the Revelation, like a bright light in a dark and surging sea, both for solemn warning and at the same time for sweet consolation, in the midst of prophecies which might appear dark and unintelligible. It is such as Dr. Chalmers was accustomed to speak of as the memorabilia of Scripture, or passages worthy to be especially noted and remembered. It has special relation to the prophetic communications just delivered by the angel to Daniel, regarding the latter days and what should befall his people in them. It is applicable, however, to the whole contents of Revelation, and to the whole period of the present dispensation, with those who live in it. They imply trouble and affliction; but this is characteristic of our present state on earth, until the happy time arrive when “they shall not hurt nor destroy” in all God’s holy mountain, and when His people “shall dwell in peaceable habitations, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting-places” (Isaiah 11:9; Isaiah 32:18). Till Christ, who is “the bright and morning star,” shall visibly and gloriously arise on the earth, as He did above eighteen centuries ago “in great humility,” the time of believers on earth will be one of discipline and of patient waiting. The “whole creation” will continue to “groan and travail together in pain,” as it has done until now, till “delivered from the bondage of corruption unto the glorious liberty of the children of God. And not only they, but ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:21; Romans 8:23). The children of the bridechamber were to mourn while the Bridegroom is away. In the salvation already experienced, and especially in that which is to be revealed, believers “greatly rejoice; though now for a season if need be,” they are “in heaviness through manifold temptations.” The effect, however, of these is a blessed one: “that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, may be found unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6-7). Such is the comfort held out in the text. “Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.” We may note—
1. The blessedness of sanctified trouble. Trouble is sanctified and blessed in two different ways, and to two different classes. It is sanctified to the ungodly, and to those still out of Christ; and it is so when, accompanied by God’s quickening and convicting Spirit, it leads the troubled one to a consideration of sin and its baneful effects, and to an earnest desire to be saved from it, and to be reconciled to God. Such a case was that of Manasseb, who in his captivity and affliction sought the Lord and found Him. Of such sanctified trouble the prodigal son is a standing and divinely given picture. The conversion of Israel in the great tribulation probably to be a distinguished example of the same thing. But trouble is also and especially sanctified to the godly, who are already in Christ. These probably more particularly referred to in the text. The “many” were not only to be purified and made white, but tried,—proved and made manifest as God’s pure gold, His faithful people, who choose rather to suffer than to sin, and who prefer death to denial of His truth. In the case of such, trouble however severe, and persecution however bitter, is only the fire employed by the Purifier to purge away the dross from the precious metal, until He sees His own image perfectly reflected in it. “This is all the fruit to take away their sin.” Persecutors are only God’s rough polishing-stone to brighten His Church. It is the gracious office of the Redeemer to “sit as a refiner of silver, and to purify the sons of Levi, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness” (Malachi 3:3). As trouble and affliction is the instrument employed by Him for that purpose, the man is pronounced blessed whom He thus “chastens and teaches out of His law” (Psalms 94:12). Such trouble and suffering is only the evidence of His fatherly and faithful love. “Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth” (Hebrews 12:6; Revelation 3:19).
2. Persecutions and struggles endured by the godly are overruled for good. Many shall be purified and made white. The result of the suffering predicted. The authors of these meant them, as in the case of Joseph’s brethren, for evil, but God overrules them for good. His people’s purification shall be promoted by them. Instead of being losers they shall be gainers. Thus the wisdom and goodness of God are manifested in permitting them. The wrath of men is made to praise Him by contributing to the purification of His children. The storm is not permitted to destroy, but employed to purify them. The furnace-fires of Babylon, kindled by the ungodly, were made only to consume the bonds of those they were intended by them to destroy. Believers have therefore no cause to fear the wrath and persecution of any adversary. These, with everything else, are only made to work together for their good.
3. Moral purification the great end intended by God in regard to his people. The will of God is their sanctification. Perfect holiness their true excellence and real happiness. Such holiness conformity to God’s own character. This the high calling and destiny of His children. “Be ye holy, for I am holy.” God is love, and His children are to be perfected in love. Sin, which is opposed to this, the only real evil. God’s purpose, therefore, to deliver them from it. The object of Christ’s incarnation, life, and death to save His people from their sins, to “redeem them from all iniquity, and to purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” This moral purification and perfection of His children constantly aimed at by God in His providential dealings both with themselves and the world. Life, with all its chequered experiences and all its varied history, God’s school for the education of His children in order to their moral perfection in His likeness. The Church with its ordinances designed for the same end. “He loved the Church, and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water, by the word” (Ephesians 5:25-26). That glorious end ultimately secured. Many shall be purified. An Almighty Agent employed for its accomplishment. Whatever may be the instrumentality, whether events in providence or ordinances in the Church, the Agent is the Spirit of holiness, by whose almighty grace we are changed from glory unto glory, into the perfect image of Him whom in the Word we are enabled by Him to contemplate (2 Corinthians 3:17). He is able to present the subjects of His moral training “faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.” “Faithful is He who calleth you, who also will do it” (Jude 1:24; 1 Thessalonians 5:24).
4. Godliness the only true wisdom. “The wise shall understand.” So in Daniel 12:3, “they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament.” Wisdom something very different from mere knowledge or science. Knowledge is precious, but at best is only light; wisdom is light, with life and love combined. Knowledge not necessarily accompanied with moral excellence. Probably a much greater amount of knowledge possessed by fallen spirits than by any human being in this life. “Knowledge puffeth up;” dissociated from renewing grace, is apt to make men vain, heady, highminded. Pythagoras, conscious of the excellence of wisdom, refused to be called by the title which others affected, a “wise man,” claiming only to be a “lover of wisdom,”—a philosopher. Wisdom a practical thing. Chooses the highest and best ends, and pursues them by the best means. Such is true godliness. The highest and best end, the glory of God the Creator of all, and the enjoyment of His friendship, fellowship, and image. Godliness is Godlikeness, and the continual aiming at such by the way that God has revealed. It is “to do justly, and love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God” (Micah 6:8). “Pure and undefiled religion before God even the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world” (James 1:27). This is wisdom, exemplified in the life and character of Him who was Wisdom personified, and who is made wisdom to all who receive and trust in Him (1 Corinthians 1:30).
5. Knowledge and understanding, in all things necessary to true happiness, guaranteed to all God’s renewed children. “The wise shall understand.” To “be wise” is a character equivalent to godliness, and belonging to those who by grace are made new creatures in Christ, who is wisdom Himself, and is made wisdom to them that are in Him. To “understand” is something promised to that character. The promise, though standing absolutely, is yet necessarily limited. The limitation is to those things necessary and desirable for us to understand. Many things which it is the province of science to explore, it is not necessary that we should understand. The same thing true of the Word of God in general, and the word of prophecy in particular. In this life we may well be content to remain, as we must remain, ignorant of many things. Here at best we can but know in part. Hereafter we shall, if approved, know even as we are known. But knowledge and understanding of what is needful is promised to the wise. The promise has special reference to the predictions already delivered by the angel to Daniel; but doubtless intended to extend to the will of God in general. The exhortation is, “Be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.” It has reference to revealed truth as a whole. “Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things,”—in all things about which I have written, and whatever else is revealed and necessary to be understood. That understanding has especial respect to God Himself, to His will concerning us, to the revelations of His word, and to His dealings in the world. “He hath given us an understanding that we should know Him that is true.” This understanding is to make us to be no mere children, but men (1 Corinthians 14:20). Given, however, to those who are of a child-like, humble, and teachable spirit. “Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes” (Matthew 11:26). The author of this understanding is not man but God, through His Holy Spirit. “Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. The anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you; but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth and is no lie, even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him” (1 John 2:20; 1 John 2:27). Christ counsels the vain, conceited Laodiceans to anoint their eyes with His eye-salve, that they may see (Revelation 3:17). “Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law.”
6. The inability of the ungodly to understand divine truth, and more especially the word of prophecy. “The wicked shall not understand.” Ungodliness, when continued in, incapacitates for the perception of divine truth. The love and practice of sin associated with a moral blindness. “If any man will do the will of God, he shall know of the doctrine.” A moral and spiritual nature necessary to discern moral and spiritual truth. Mere intellectual light often associated with thick moral darkness. Witness the ancient Greeks and Romans, and many of the heathen at the present day. The ungodly destitute of a taste and relish for divine truth, and therefore incapable of perceiving and appreciating it. Hence the counsel, “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine.” Ungodliness generally associated with pride and self-conceit, the great hindrance to the reception of true knowledge. “Whom shall He teach knowledge, and whom shall He cause to understand doctrine? Those that are drawn from the breasts.” The ungodly, rejecting divine knowledge, are often righteously given over to a mind incapable of discerning it—a “reprobate mind.” Such, especially, to be the case in the time of the end, more particularly referred to in the text. Antichrist’s false pretensions and lying wonders believed by those who received not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12).
7. A time when it may be too late for repentance. “The wicked shall do wickedly.” The effect of indulged sin and practised ungodliness is to perpetuate itself. A time when God may righteously leave ungodliness to follow its own inclinations. “My Spirit shall not always strive with man.” “He that is filthy, let him be filthy still.” Confirmed ungodliness seen in its persistency both in the time of bestowed mercy, and increased light, and manifested judgments. “Let favour be shown to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord. When thy hand is lifted up they will not see” (Isaiah 26:10-11). Such a state of things probably indicated in the text as taking place in the last days, when “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13). The greatest blessing, when the wicked is made to turn from his wickedness and live; the greatest curse, when the wicked is left still to do wickedly. “To-day, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart.” Sad indeed when neither mercy nor judgment, neither goodness nor severity, leads men to repentance, and when the more they are stricken the more they revolt, till God ceases even to smite (Isaiah 1:5).
8. Solemn contrast presented in the text. Scripture abounds in striking contrasts. Here is one, in relation, first, to persons; and, second, to what is said of them. The persons are the wise and the wicked. The only two classes mentioned, and in God’s eye the only two in the world. The contrast not always sharp or evident in man’s sight, though always in the eye of God—probably to be made more manifest as the end approaches. The wise, those who, like Mary, choose the good part that shall not be taken from them. The wicked, those who are content to have their portion in this life. The wise, those who seek God; the wicked, those who forget Him. The inward language of the wise, “Lord, lift Thou upon me the light of Thy countenance;” that of the wicked, “Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways.” The wise are made such unto salvation, through the knowledge of the Scriptures; the wicked neglect the great salvation, and have no relish for the word that reveals it. The wise often poor and illiterate, with little of the knowledge which the world so eagerly prizes and pursues.
“Just know, and know no more, their Bible true;
A truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew.”
The wicked often only such in the eye of Him who looks not on the outward appearance, but looks upon the heart; in man’s eye, perhaps, enlightened, respectable, and even religious. That which is highly esteemed among men, often abomination with God. The Laodicean Christian congratulates himself that he is rich, and increased in goods, and having need of nothing; while, without knowing it, he is poor, and wretched, and miserable, and blind, and naked; satisfied and pleased that he is neither cold nor hot, while, because he is only lukewarm, Christ is ready to spue him out of His mouth. The contrast similar in regard to what is said of the two classes. The wise are purified and made white by the trials and afflictions through which they are made to pass. The wicked, notwithstanding all they either see or experience, all the events of Providence, as well as all the warnings of the Word, still do wickedly. The Lord’s beseeching hand remains stretched out all day long in vain to a disobedient and gainsaying people. He calls, but they refuse; He stretches out His hand, but they do not regard. They refuse to repent. Again: the wise shall understand; shall see both the meaning and the beauty of God’s Word, especially in what it declares concerning the last things, both the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow, with the perils and tribulations that shall usher in that glory, as well as the dealings of God’s providence, and the events that shall come one after another upon the world. But the wicked shall not understand, blind alike to the truths of God’s Word, and the character of His providential dealings with the world, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace, calling good evil and evil good, putting bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter, darkness for light and light for darkness. It will be the misery of the wicked who refuse Him who is the Light of the world, that, while the godly in those days of darkness that are to come, shall, like Israel, have light in their dwellings, they shall still walk on in darkness, until their “feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and while they look for light, He turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness” (Jeremiah 13:16).
How important the question, On which side of the contrast am I?—Among those who are wise unto salvation, and hearken for the time, the eternity, to come; or among the wicked, who, Felix-like, say, Go thy way for this time, when I have a convenient season I will send for thee. Dying beds often bear witness to the contrast; and dying beds do not generally tell lies. Dying circumstances, when the approach of eternity opens men’s eyes, usually discover the wise man and the fool. “My principles,” said Altamont when in those circumstances, “have poisoned my friend; my extravagance has beggared my boy; my wickedness has murdered my wife: and is there another hell? Oh thou blasphemed, yet most indulgent Lord God, hell itself is a refuge if it hide me from Thy frown.” “Give me more laudanum,” said Mirabeau, “that I may not think of eternity and of what is to come.” “I would give worlds,” said Thomas Paine, “that the Age of Reason had never been written.” Let us hear from the other side. “I have pain,” said Richard Baxter—“there is no arguing against sense—but I have peace; I have peace.” “The battle is fought,” said Dr. Payson, “and the victory is won for ever: I am going to bathe in an ocean of purity, and benevolence, and happiness, to all eternity.” “My soul,” said John Brown of Haddington, “hath found inexpressibly more sweetness and satisfaction in a single line of the Bible, nay, in two such words as these, Thy God and My God, than all the pleasures found in the things of the world since the creation could equal.” “I desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better; and though I have lived sixty years very comfortably in this world, yet I would gladly turn my back on you all to be with Christ.” “I think now that I could willingly die to see Him who is white and ruddy, the chief among ten thousand.” “Had I ten thousand hearts, they should all be given to Christ; and had I ten thousand bodies, they should all be employed in labouring for His honour.” His last words were “MY CHRIST.”