SIGNS OF THE NEARING ADVENT OF CHRIST.
By Bonar
The night cometh! Nor does it seem far off. It never appeared so nigh. The shadows are lengthening out, and falling with ominous gloom upon the valleys of earth. The dimness of twilight is beginning to make itself felt. It is settling down drearily upon our cities, and on our solitudes; upon the towers of our strength, and the palaces of our pomp; nor can the noisy rush of eager multitudes hurrying to and fro for gain or pleasure, wholly stifle the utterance of fear and awe. Men cannot help foreboding evil, for who can tell them what may be in the womb of darkness? The night birds are already on the wing, flitting around us, and reminding us of the descending night. Yet it is written also, “The day is at hand.” The night, though dark, will be brief, and will soon be succeeded by a glorious day. But still of that day the night will be the forerunner. And this world’s night is surely near. The signs of Christ’s second advent that have been given us by the Lord and his apostles are both notable and numerous. And it is very evident that those have been selected which were the most expressive and the least ambiguous. They are chosen as being the most prominent and explicit that could be given. It cannot be thought that the least striking have been announced and the most striking concealed. If so, then is it not very remarkable that the millennium of a thousand years (Rev. 20) is never mentioned as a sign at all? Had this been to take place before the second advent, how has it never been alluded to as one of the signs? It would have been by far the most distinct and visible. No one could overlook or mistake it. Yet nowhere by prophets or apostles, or by the Lord himself, is it noted as a sign. How can this be accounted for, save upon the ground that it was to take place after, not before, the advent? If this be admitted, all is plain; if it be denied, then let those who deny it account for the fact that, among the many signs of the advent, the millennium is never mentioned as one. How the most palpable of them all could be omitted seems to me to require an explanation. On the post-millennial system, the omission seems to me inexplicable. For thus our Lord would be made to profess to tell us the signs of his appearing, and yet to conceal the most notable of them all. But this is not all. The signs which are given are inconsistent with the idea of a millennium before the second advent. Who that reads the Lord’s prophecy in Matt. 24, which begins with the destruction of Jerusalem and ends with his second appearing in the clouds of heaven, does not feel that the whole drift of it was to show the church that they were to expect sorrow, not joy, tribulation, not triumph, up to the time when he should return? These signs were successive crests of the billows on which she was to be tossed, till he, with his own voice and presence, should rebuke and calm the ocean. The simple omission, then, of the millennium as a sign is a fact on which we ought to lay much stress; but the omission of it in circumstances which preclude the possibility of its being a thing reserved or merely unspoken, furnishes a strong argument in proof of a pre-millennial advent. Let me now note some of the signs which, in the present day, seem most remarkable as forerunners of the Lord’s appearing. And though of some of these it might be said that they have been found in former days, yet others of them, as we shall see, are peculiar to our own. 1. Wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes, pestilences, and famines in divers places. Matt. 24: 6, 7. I need not enter minutely into the proof of the existence of these. The public journals bear witness to it. For a while, it seemed almost as if the world were at rest, as if its storms had spent themselves. But now all seems changed. Every day brings new indications of disquietude and convulsion. Few nations seem willing to draw the sword, yet every nation has her hand upon the hilt; with some it is already gleaming in the air, and with others it is reddened with blood. Over the whole earth is heard “the long, low, distant murmur of dread sound.” And is not this the prelude to the last universal war? Ezek. 38; Zech. 14; Dan. 11: 40–45, 12:1; Rev. 13:7; 16:12–16; 17:8–14; 19:11–14. Is it not a sign of the near approach of Him who, when earth’s madness and ambition are at their height—when the summoned nations are gathered at Armageddon, girt for battle and slaughter—himself appears for their discomfiture and ruin? Then, but not till then, wars shall cease, and the weapons of war perish. Then the true Solomon shall begin his reign, hushing the tumults of the nations, and introducing the long-expected Sabbath of this weary “work-a-day world.” Rev. 19:20. 2. The restlessness of the world. This sign is in part connected with the preceding, yet may be viewed separately. The state of the world is at present very ominous. “Distress of nations with perplexity—men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things that are coming on the earth,” “and then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud” (Luke 21:27), is God’s picture of the state of man as the final crisis draws on. This seems our attitude at this moment. The earth, and the things that are coming on it, attract the attention of all serious thinkers. There is something in the state of the world so unsettled, so pregnant with uncertain evil, that every eye is moving to and fro in expectation of strange issues, and as if to catch the first sign of their approach. The form and color of the clouds forebode speedy change and threaten tempest to the nations. The time for listlessness and apathy is gone. Some thirty years ago, when the skies were bright, and men could promise themselves days of sunshine, it was safe enough to fold the hands and take our ease. But all this is over. No doubt, after the excitement of recent wars and revolutions, men would prefer repose. But the onward swell of the waters stays not for an hour. There is among the nations a spirit of restlessness, anarchy, and insubordination, a passionate love of change, a headlong rush to overturn every established system, too furious and united to be ultimately withstood. Many call it but a passing tumult, the frenzy of an hour; but they who understand it know how deep is the spring out of which it flows. The storm, long gathering, but resisted by the barriers which ancient Wisdom had erected for the stability of kingdoms, is concentrating and condensing its strength in these venerable recesses,195which may for a while refuse to yield to the explosive force, but which, overstrained at length, give way to the accumulated pressure; then will the kingdoms of the earth be shivered, throne and temple overturned, wall and fortress laid in ruins. Such is the night which is to precede the long-looked-for day when not only Israel but the whole earth shall arise and put on the garments of beauty, fit and meet for the personal presence of their glorious King.—Bonar.