Satan always seeks to corrupt what he cannot destroy, and the truth of the Lord’s coming as the blessed hope of the believer is no exception to this. Since the Lord has graciously revived it in this closing period of the day of grace, it has taken so firm a hold upon the souls of His saints everywhere as was never known before since apostolic times, nor was it since those days ever before so generally accepted as it is now. We have no reason to think that, as a doctrine of Scripture, it will again lapse into forgetfulness as it did during post-apostolic days.
“Behold the Bridegroom”
At the beginning the virgins all went out to meet the bridegroom (Matt. 25:11Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. (Matthew 25:1)), but how soon this testimony was given up, and “they all slumbered and slept.” So silent was true Christian testimony! But at midnight there went forth an arousing cry, (1) “Behold, the bridegroom!” (2) “Go ye out to meet Him!” (Matt. 25:66And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. (Matthew 25:6)). How perfectly this has been fulfilled, and how closely connected these two things are — the person of Christ and the meeting Him — the outgoing of heart to Himself as the coming One! We thank God that the power of the Holy Spirit has so accompanied this testimony that Satan’s mightiest efforts will achieve no success in depriving Christians of what God has so graciously restored to His church. But there is danger that the very depth of our convictions on this truth may close our eyes to the more subtle snare to which we are exposed, even if we are scripturally sound on the doctrine itself. The finest characteristic, which that hope possesses, regarded practically, is its dateless imminence, or, in other words, its undefined but certain nearness. If Satan, therefore, could succeed in removing this peculiar feature, he knows well he would so nullify it that while the shell of the doctrine remained in its structural integrity to satisfy its adherents, the kernel would be abstracted. Its intrinsic value would be surrendered, since it would no longer be an ever-operating power and “blessed hope” before the soul.
The Present-Day Danger
This is the peculiar danger of the present day, and foreseeing this, the Lord has furnished a parable expressly to warn against this singular snare which the enemy lays for professing Christians (Matt. 24:45-5145Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? 46Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. 47Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods. 48But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; 49And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; 50The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, 51And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 24:45‑51)). Another scripture warns against the scoffers of the last days (2 Peter 3), but that phase of the subject is not now before us. The special snare of Satan in this post-midnight hour is that of the retention of sound doctrine as to the advent and personal reign of Christ, along with the worldliness and the like which the Lord sets forth in the beating of fellow-servants and eating and drinking with the drunken. Such violence and wantonness, whether exerted or restrained, are the real workings of the flesh and the allowance of the world when developed and displayed.
We would therefore bring home to our own soul and to you the deep importance of watching against this declension of heart as to the Lord’s return, which is the last snare of our cunning foe. Having been looking for Him so long, can we say that we are more and more convinced that He is near at hand? Are both the desire for and the expectation of His coming growing every day stronger within our souls? This is the true reckoning and conclusion of faith.
Our Desires Rekindled or Cooled
One of two things must be true of us. On the one hand, if the dearly-cherished desire of our hearts has not yet been gratified, we have therefore clung the more tenaciously to it, having the desire rekindled afresh in our affections each recurring day, and our daily expectation approximated more and more towards a certainty that He is close at hand. On the other hand, we may have allowed our faith to fail, our desires to cool, and our expectations to falter. We have said, as it were, “We have expected Him all these years, and He has never come, nor do we know at all when He will.” Thus the sense of it, as an increasingly “blessed hope,” has escaped from the heart. No wonder that the poor, faithless heart then turns to the world which it had unwittingly allowed to betray it into declension, saying within itself, “My Lord delayeth His coming,” and in consequence giving license to the flesh and its works.
How different is it to faith! Are earth’s scenes at their darkest, the poor body brought down to death’s door, and life rapidly ebbing away? For us there is no darkness that cannot be penetrated by the piercing rays of “the bright and morning star” — no time so short as to preclude His coming therein, since if there be but time for an eye to twinkle, there is time for Him to come. To the joy of His own heart, the first act of His coming will be to produce its full effect upon the bodies of the untold multitudes of His saints in the same twinkling of an eye! It is equally the privilege of faith to find the Lord’s coming the very brightest thing in our horizon, engaging our hearts supremely and asserting its full place and power, even when divine favors upon earth are in their most sparkling array before our grateful hearts. If it is not so with us, we may well challenge our souls as to whether the person of Christ and the promise of His coming again have ever assumed their place in the heart as they should.
The Lord’s Table and His Coming
We would add to this that we know nothing that is used of the Holy Spirit more powerfully and more refreshingly to revive this precious hope in the hearts of the saints than the Lord’s table. The Lord’s supper indeed possesses the unique property of converging into one focus His death and His coming, bringing back His death as “our only yesterday” and bringing forward His coming as “our only tomorrow.” Our yesterday is a dead Christ whom we remember, our today a glorified Christ to whom we are united, and our tomorrow a coming Christ for whom we are longing! He shines upon us as the “bright and morning star” while we keep vigil through the long night of His prolonged absence.
May the Holy Spirit keep freshly before our souls this “blessed hope,” nor allow it to be impaired by any of the changing scenes of earth. Above all, may we be preserved from, in ever so remote a degree, saying in our hearts with Laodicean levity and worldliness, “My Lord delayeth His coming.” It is not in the quantity of service we do, but in the measure of how much of Christ is presented that the value of our service is determined, in a world where there is nothing of God.
W. R., The Christian Friend, 6:32