Christ's Coming a Certainty.
By The Churchman
ONCE more the advent cry is heard, "The night is far spent; the day is at hand." The faith expressed in this cry was the life of the early church—the secret of her fearlessness, of her purity, and of her miraculous patience. To some that faith seems now a superstition. The secular, and, in certain instances, the religious world, have discarded that first principle of the primitive belief. With many the second coming of Christ is regarded as an illusion, which the early Christians were permitted to cherish, but which was intended, as time rolled on, to be replaced by a more rational and sensible view of things. But the Lord's advent to judgment, it should be remembered, is more than a doctrine. It stands as a fact in the revelation of the divine purpose. All the descriptions which the New Testament gives of it are historical, only they are history written beforehand. And with Him, from whom this revelation comes, there is no difference whatever between the past and the future. What has been and what shall be are equally matters of certainty. The belief of Christians in this fact rests, we admit, upon testimony; but so does their belief in more than nine-tenths of the things which they accept as true. How many of the people now living ever saw with their own eyes the city of Jerusalem? Yet men believe that the Son of man was crucified there, and that he was buried, and that he rose again on the third day. The evidence in favor of the historic reality of these events in the life of Jesus Christ is, they are forced to confess, overwhelming. But the evidence of Christ's second coming is, when one stops to think over the matter, just as strong. It rests upon the testimony of the same witnesses, nay, upon the testimony of him who is greater than they, even Christ himself. And in both cases the thing attested belongs to the realm of the supernatural. It is no more irrational to believe that he will come "in power and great glory" than it is to believe that he did come 1900 years ago in great humility. Those who saw him go away said also that the last message received by them from him was that he would come again. What the risen Son of God promised to do is just as sure, and should be believed as readily and implicitly, as the scriptural record of what he has done. His first and his second advents are, therefore, equally matters of fact, and each of them appeals to the reasonable faith of men. Moreover, his coming will be not that of an influence merely, nor that of an era or of an event, but that of a person. It will be the return of One who has gone away, and who is now absent. If the predictions relating to Christ's second advent are figurative, why should not the history of his first advent be regarded in the same light? Those who resolve the four Gospels into a myth, accepting, as they say, the spirit, but denying the literal accuracy of what is there recorded, and those who make Christ's future coming anything less than his personal and local reappearing—his bodily returning—have adopted precisely the same method of Biblical interpretation. Both classes explain away what the gospel represents as moral certainties and as matters of fact. Compare this certainty of Christ's advent with some others in reference to which men hold a very strong belief. "The sun will rise to-morrow," is one of the articles of nature's creed. But if one should stop to reason on this matter, he might doubt the certainty of such an event. The sun's rising had a beginning. There was, far back, one day that had no yesterday behind it. All science is driven logically to an acceptance of this fact. Furthermore, whatsoever had a beginning may have an end. Therefore it is in accordance with science to believe that there will be some day that will have no to-morrow before it. Certain as it is that this present year will be followed by another, it is more certain that Christ will come. The first may be; the second must be. Again, how frequent is the saying—more frequent, it is to be feared, than is the realization of what is said—"We must all die." There is, men are wont to confess, no escape from that certainty. But it is more certain that Christ will come. "We shall not all sleep," was the declaration of Paul, speaking by the command of the Lord and the inspiration of the Holy Ghost; and by the same word we are told, "He that shall come will come, and will not tarry." There is no "perhaps" in the purpose and plan, or in the preparations which are leading on to the final consummation. Let the church hope to the end, looking for the salvation that is to be revealed. "The night is far spent," and "there shall be no night there."—The Churchman.