We now approach a division of our subject which is of the most thrilling interest. As the result of the foregoing investigation, we have found the most unequivocal testimony of scripture that such an event is literally before the world as the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven, attended with a power and glory, before which the enemies of the Lord shall consume, islands and mountains be removed out of their places, and suns and systems pale and fade away. The next step in the inquiry is, When may we expect this awfully glorious event? As no subject has greater claims upon the liveliest interest of all classes of men, than that of the personal advent of the King of kings and Lord of lords, so no division of this subject can present more of such claims than that of the time of its accomplishment. Are mankind to know when the great crisis is drawing near, when it is nigh at hand? To be still more definite, Are we sustained by any scriptural warrant in looking for this event in the generation in which we live? In looking at the past through the examples recorded for our admonition and learning, in the word of God, we see one uniform feature running through all his dealings with the world: it is that no judgment comes unheralded, and no people fall therein unwarned. The Lord keeps back nothing from his saints which it is needful and profitable for them to know. Of a coming flood he gives them warning, and instructs them how to escape; from the doomed cities of the plain, he hastens them away by the hand of angels; and when, in the commencement of the gospel dispensation, the time came that the rebellious city which had rejected the Son of God, should be itself rejected and given over to the abomination of desolation, our Lord instructs his disciples when to make their escape from that desolating power. But a greater judgment is involved in the coming of the Lord than in any event which has previously transpired in this world's history; greater consequences are involved therein; and hence the greater necessity that we should know of its approach, and how and when to seek a position of preparation and safety. Many exhortations are given us in view of the solemnities of the great day of the Lord. "Watch," says the Saviour, "for you know not what hour your Lord doth come." Matt. xxiv, 42. "Be ye also ready." Verse 44. Again, "Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find" giving his household meat in due season. Verse 46. In what Mark has recorded in reference to the same event, we find these words: "Take ye heed, watch and pray; for ye know not when the time is." Chap. xiii, 33. Again, "Watch ye therefore . . . lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping." Verses 35, 36. Luke says, "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." Chap. xxi, 34. But "as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all." Chap. xvii, 27. Matthew says that "they knew not, till the flood came," &c. The apostle Paul tells us [Heb. ix, 28] that unto them that look for him the Lord shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation; clearly implying that it is necessary to be looking for him, in order to be prepared to share in the salvation which he comes to bring. The faithful Witness, to the church in Sardis [Rev. iii, 3], says, "If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come upon thee as a thief and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee." From all these scriptures we see that a special preparation is requisite for this great event; hence the necessity that we know in what age of the world it is to transpire; and of this necessity we have the best assurance that the Lord will not be unmindful, nor leave this lack of his people unsupplied. The testimony of the lively oracles on this point is as direct as it is cheering. In Amos iii, 7, we read, "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret to his servants the prophets." Noah knew when to build the ark and when to enter it; Lot knew when to flee from Sodom; the disciples knew when to make their escape from the fated city of Jerusalem; and the language of the apostle to the disciples in the last days is, "But ye brethren are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief." 1 Thess. v, 4. We are therefore treading on no forbidden ground, and prying into no unlawful secret, by instituting an inquiry on this point. Should the eye of an opponent rest upon these lines, as will, no doubt, at this stage of the investigation, be revolving complacently in his mind that cherished text by which many before him have sought to quiet their conscience and dispel their fears; namely, "Of that day and hour knoweth no man." Matt. xxiv, 36. But we can suggest to our hasty friend that we accord to this text as literal an import, and as broad a meaning as he has ever thought of doing. We neither pretend to know, nor are we endeavoring to make known the day or hour of this event. But because we know not this does it follow that we are to know nothing about it whatever? Let us ask the objector one question: Do you believe that this language has reference to the coming of the Lord, and the end of the world? Most certainly it does, is the reply. Well then we want no further admission from you; for in this very discourse, and in this very connection, only a few verses before, we have these words from the lips of the great Teacher: "Now learn a parable of the fig tree: when his branch is yet tender and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh; so likewise ye, when ye see all these things [the signs previously mentioned], know that it [margin—he, Christ] is near even at the doors." We cannot leave this point without a passing notice of a sophism very common with many of our opponents; they tell us that Matt. xxiv, applies to the destruction of Jerusalem, and yet are ever ready to apply one declaration of that chapter, that which speaks of not knowing the day or hour, to our views of the coming of Christ and the end of the world. But stop! If that chapter refers exclusively to the destruction of Jerusalem, then, of course, the verse in question also refers to the same event, and is merely a declaration that no man knoweth the day or hour of the destruction of Jerusalem. But if, on the other hand this verse is spoken in reference to the end of the world and the coming of the Lord, as they are seemingly so impatient to interpret it, then assuredly the context applies to the same; and that gives us instructions by which we may know when the great event is nigh, as certainly as we discern the approach of summer by the budding of the fig tree.