CHRIST'S COMING by Alexander McLaren

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 3, 1895

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 21, No. 39.

CHRIST'S COMING.

By Alexander McLaren

THE final personal coming is preceded by the darkening sun, the quenched moon, the falling stars,—portents equally terrible, whether fact or figure. The “parable of the fig tree” bids us think of that coming which has so terrible precursors, and so much which might excite awe, as if it were a glad, bursting summer, and these signs as natural, peaceful, and hopeful as the suppling stem and the swelling buds,—a beautiful and surprising image, which they that “love his appearing” understand. . . . Christ's final word is the strong declaration of ignorance of that day, which he himself shares, and the enforcement of the practical lesson of watchfulness, which is not restless anticipation of his coming, but “loins girt and lamps burning,” strenuous effort and bright Christian character, stimulated and fed by the assurance that he comes and ignorance of the time when he does. The last words of all sufficiently show that he was speaking to future generations, “What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.” They lay that duty on every age.—Alexander McLaren, D.D.