I. Notice the peril that of losing faith. Now, faith in reference to questions of revelation has three degrees, and only the last represents it in its completeness, though, indeed, as things go now we are apt to accept even, and only the first, with a sort of thankful surprise. (1) First, there is faith in a personal God, Maker and Owner of the universe, who, in the far distant past, in the mystery of His infinite power and wisdom, summoned everything into being. What theology calls by the cold name of Deism is, however, far beyond the reach of some thinkers now. Because science cannot discover God, reason is pertly bidden to treat Him as if He could not be discovered. (2) Then there is another table-land, whereon faith recognises, not only the being of God, but also His government; refuses to suppose that, exhausted with the labours of creation, He has ever since left the universe to take its own course, or, if after a fashion governing it, handcuffed by His own laws. (3) The third and final stage of Christian faith is, where the spirit of man worships the God of the creeds. God, that is, revealed and reconciled in His Incarnate Son, who, after He had perfected our redemption by His death, rose from the grave, and went back to heaven, from whence He sent His Holy Spirit to build up His Church among men, until in the end of the days He comes back with His holy angels to judge both the quick and the dead. It is this faith with a few all of it, with many some of it that seems now to be perishing out of our midst, so as already to justify the Saviour's mournful question, "When I come back who will there be to believe on Me?
II. Such is our peril, but what is our safeguard? (1) We must each do the work given him to do, each be at his post. Let us more thoroughly master, more minutely examine, more devoutly study, more sincerely Love, the great doctrines of our religion, never treating them as if they were something to be ashamed of, unfit for reasoning men and this superior time. (2) Then let us use, and enjoy, and deepen our faith by sharing it with others. The brightest, and bravest, and strongest, and blessedest souls, are those which feel their religion a trust; their faith a profession before many witnesses; their warfare not only fighting for themselves, but contending for their Master; their crown, when it comes to them from the King's hand sparkling beyond the brightness of the firmament, with the precious salvation of a brother's soul.
Bishop Thorold, Good Words,1880, p. 60.
I. Faith may mean no more than an assent to what is told. But the true account of faith is this a belief in every revelation made by God, an acceptance of Divine grace in every mode and channel through which it is conveyed.
II. Why should Christ look for faith above all spiritual graces on His return? Because faith is the organ by which we accept both revelation and grace. Therefore, so far as His influence on man is concerned, Almighty God depends upon our faith. It is a condition of the success of His work; it is the only force which we can employ to frustrate His infinite power.
III. You cannot pray unless you have faith that the thing you want is in the hand of God to give.
IV. Besides men's faith in prayer, Christ's words point to their ready will to welcome Him on His return.
C. W. Furse, Sermons at Richmond,p. 85.
I. Christ will come again after His Resurrection in three different senses: (1) He will come again finally, and in the highest sense, when this world shall end, and we shall all rise to judgment; (2) He will come to each one of us finally, in the highest sense, when we each of us receive His call to die; (3) He has come more than once, and I believe He will come more than once again, not finally, nor in the highest sense, either to all mankind or to each individual, but in a lower sense, and affording a sort of type or image of the higher: I mean, when He comes to bring upon the earth, or on some one or more nations, a great season of suffering, in which "the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low." In this sense, He is said to have come when he destroyed Jerusalem; in this sense, also, He came more than three hundred years afterwards, when He destroyed the empire of Rome.
II. Now let us mark His own question. "When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith upon the earth?" And let us see what would be the answer to it, supposing that His coming in each one of the three senses which I have spoken of should be near, even at the doors. (1) May we for a moment be allowed to conceive the unspeakable awfulness of His coming in the highest sense of all? Should we then be filled with fear in our inmost hearts, as if certain death were coming upon us? or should we look up to Him whom we beheld amidst the blessed company of His saints and angels, as to one whom we have long known, long loved, long desired to see? (2) What would be our feelings were God to come in our generation in the lower sense of the term, if He were to visit this nation with a season of great misery, with famine and pestilence and war? Blessed are they who, like the three men in Nebuchadnezzar's furnace, walk in their souls unhurt amidst the furnace of evil times, because the Son of God is with them. (3) When the Son of man cometh to us at death, shall He find faith in us? If we have no faith in Him now, we shall have none when He cometh; the lamp is not burning in us, but gone out. And when the cry strikes our ears that the Bridegroom is coming it will be too late to kindle it again; for while we are vainly going about to buy the oil, He comes, and they who are ready not who hope to be ready by-and-by can alone go in with Him to the marriage.
T. Arnold, Sermons,vol. v., p. 15.
References: Luke 18:8. A. P. Stanley, Church of England Pulpit,vol. iii., p. 229; J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons,2nd series, p. 66; Preacher's Monthly,vol. viii., p. 242.Luke 18:9. F. W. Robertson, The Human Race and Other Sermons,p. 36; C. Jones, Church of England Pulpit,vol. x., p. 543.Luke 18:9-14. Homiletic Quarterly,vol. i., p. 346; Ibid.,vol. iv., p. 478; Ibid.,vol. xiii., p. 332; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. iii., p. 81; R. C. Trench, Notes on the Parables,p. 500; H. Calderwood, The Parables,p. 79; A. B. Bruce, The Parabolic Teach ing of Christ,p. 312.