“As the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west,” so shall be HIS coming—universally visible from the east even unto the west, and shining from heaven unto earth, yea, “every eye shall see him,” yea, “all the tribes of the earth shall see the Son of Man,” Matt. xxiv. 30.—“As lightning cometh,” so shall be HIS coming, shining in the awful “brightness” of his own exceeding glory, yea, “all the tribes of the earth shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory,” Ver. 30. You have gazed upon an unclouded evening sky, and suddenly, in an instant, you have seen lightning shoot athwart it without any change therein—so shall be the coming of the Son of Man in HIS DAY. Or you have beheld the heavens and the earth, the trees and the fields, man and beast, the winged fowl and the busy insect, and the cattle on a thousand hills, rejoicing in the bright beams of the bridegroom-sun, and you have seen burst over you a storm of lightning, discharging itself in thunder, which, although it had gathered on and rolled on in visible preparation, has overtaken you suddenly, because the note of it had been unheeded by you or disbelieved in. So in HIS DAY shall be the coming of the Son of Man upon a heedless, unbelieving world.
“For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,” until the very day; no cessation of wickedness, and worldliness and wanton pleasure, no belief in the coming judgment, no looking for it—on they went, poor souls, eating and drinking and marrying, merry and light-hearted, singing and dancing, blind and heedless, like the moth to the candle, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, “and KNEW NOT until the flood came, and took them all away.” KNEW NOT! wretched men! KNEW NOT! Noah, and the seven other saved souls knew, knew it all “perfectly.” But THEY knew not—they cried “peace and safety,” and so “sudden destruction” came upon them; “so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.”
“And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.” “Watch ye, therefore, and pray always, that he may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.”