THE SIGN OF THE SON OF MAN.
By Dr. Cumming
THERE is one prediction that has occasioned not great dispute, but certainly great variety of opinion. It is this: "Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man; some sign that is to usher in the advent of the Son of man. What is it? All I can do is to let you hear the opinions I have gathered, from the earliest writer, Chrysostom, the Archbishop of Constantinople, down to the most recent interpreter of prophecy." Some say that the sign of the Son of man means simply the advent of the Son of man. But the sign is distinct from the thing signified; and if it be a sign, it surely cannot be what the sign signifies—the advent of the Son of man. Another class of interpreters believe that this sign is to be the appearance of the glorious and radiant resurrection body of our blessed Lord; and the ground on which they say so is, that "To this faithless generation shall be given no other sign than the sign of Jonah the prophet." What was that sign? Christ's resurrection. And as the sign of Jonah was appealed to by him, so the sign set forth and spoken of by the Son of man will be, these interpreters think, the appearance of the glorious and glorified body of the Son of God. But then this, again seems to me to confound the sign and the substance, or the thing signified, and therefore not a true and natural exposition of it. The third class of opinions was the most common during the earliest ages of the Christian Church. Almost all the Greek Fathers of the fourth century, and one or two of the Latin Fathers,—and their agreement here is singular, whether it be true or superstitious—Chrysostom and his contemporaries, almost to a man, think that the sign of the Son of man is to be a gigantic luminous cross that will appear in the firmament covering a space wide as the widest horizon; so brilliant, so overwhelming in its splendor, that no scientific solution, no optical delusion, no resource of astronomy, will be able to explain it or exhaust its meaning. I do not believe that this is the correct explanation. I state it as an almost universal belief in the fourth century of the Christian era. I think it arose in some degree from that incipient superstitious veneration of the cross which has culminated into the rankest idolatry in the Roman Catholic Church. For, after all, the cross, as a material thing, is nothing; it was a Roman instrument of punishment, and that instrument was used because it was the legal and the prescribed one at the time. It is the moral glory of the atonement that is the cross of Christ. That in which Paul gloried was not the wood on which Jesus hung, but the sacrifice which Jesus made and perfected there. Others think that the sign will be the approach of an illuminated cloud something like the chariot of fire on which the prophet of old ascended into heaven, careering through the sky, and borne on the willing winds, interpenetrated with beams of intense splendor, the sign of the approach of the chariot-wheels of Him who comes to reign, and whose right it is. Other interpreters think it will be the very star that stood over the manger, which, with greater splendor and brilliancy, and subject to a more universal notice, shall stand over that spot on which the feet of the Son of man shall stand, and where Jew and Gentile shall gather together to praise, to adore, and to worship him. A star of almost supernatural brilliancy hung over the Mount of Olives during the summer of 1857.—Jew and Gentile were powerfully impressed by its appearance; the former thinking it the sign of the Messiah, and the latter the "sign of the Son of man." Others think that the sign of the Son of man will be the shechinah; that which burned between the cherubim in the holy place; that moved like a pillar of bright flame in the desert before the hosts of Israel; and when this glory shall burst upon the world, the light of the sun, and shining of the moon and the stars will all grow pale in the intensity of that splendor of unearthly brilliancy and glory. It seems to me very doubtful how far these have any foundation in truth. The most probable (for I can only speak of probabilities) interpretation is, that "the sign of the Son of man" will be the accomplishment of all that has preceded. After the Gospel has been preached as a witness to all nations; after there shall come false prophets, deceptive and delusive in their doctrines, captivating, because teaching a lax morality, putting up pretensions to miraculous powers so plausible that, if it were possible, they would deceive the very elect: after the lightnings begin to burst from the east in increasing splendor to its lair in the distant west; after all these have come to pass, we shall have the sign, or the assurance, that the coming or approach of the Son of man draweth nigh.—From the Great Tribulation, by Dr. Cumming.