THE WORLD as the great day of the Lord draws near, and there shall be no such thing as that gradual increase of true enlightenment, righteousness, and peace, which so many persons think will usher in the gentle reign of the Redeemer. For aught then which we learn from the state of things around us in the world, we may be even at the present moment drawing near to the great Advent of our God.

But what as to the CHURCH? This is a point of deepest interest with the Lord's people. The world will always be at work for its own master, and therefore it is no marvel if it reap the fruit of such a servitude: but how the children of the Lord will fare amid the increase of wickedness, and in the day of vengeance, is a matter as to which the earnest Christian must desire to be informed. The judgments we have spoken of are to be world-wide. Exceptions seem to have been made but sparingly on the prophetic page. A man is to be "more precious than the golden wedge of Ophir." "The slain of the Lord" are to be "from one end of the earth to the other." "When the Lord cometh shall He find faith" -shall He find a real Christian-"upon the earth?" But how is this to be? Will the Lord's people then deny their faith, consort with the wicked, and be consumed with the transgressors? Surely not! The

people of the Lord are many;-multitudes in every nation under heaven. We cannot think they will apostatize. Nay, who shall make such multitudes afraid? Moreover, the Inspired Word is plain upon the point. They shall not apostatize. The iniquity and tribulation shall be such as to deceive even the Elect "if it were possible;" but it is not possible; as Christ has said, "My sheep hear My voice and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any (man) pluck them out of My hand."1 Indeed a great change must pass upon the world before the day can come wherein the Church of Christ upon the earth, taken as a whole, will be the subject of a persecution unto death. It is true that both Daniel 2 and John3 speak clearly upon the subject of a last great persecution which is to afflict God's servants; and that immediately before the coming of the Lord for judgment. But if we examine what they say as to the state of things which will exist upon the earth at that period (as we must presently), we shall see that the whole aspect of the world's affairs will have undergone a change, sudden and wonderful, brought about by God Himself.

The strongest intimation which occurs in Scripture

2 Dan. vii. 25 and xi. 31-37.

1 John x. 27, 28.

3 Rev. xx. 4.

about the spread of Gospel faith and the spiritual standing of the Church-its zeal, its devotedness, its love for souls, and its position of power in the world when the great day is near, appears to be that which our Lord Jesus Christ Himself gave to His disciples when He said, "this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come."1 But this says very little in the direction of an universal reception of the Gospel. The Gospel is to be preached everywhere, "for a witness.' Not to be received everywhere, nor even by every nation. Nothing more indeed need be done, nothing more need be expected than we find to have already taken place. For anything that is declared in this passage, we may expect the Second Advent of our Saviour now. It is marvellous how little we read in Scripture about the spiritual standing of the Church of Christ as the Millennial age approaches, and how much we read of the abounding wickedness of the world, its sinfulness increasing, its evil seducers waxing worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.

By what is said respecting the amazing growth of wickedness in the last days, I think we may expect that the true people of the Lord will appear more decidedly distinct, and that they will stand out to greater dis

1 Matt. xxiv. 25.

"1

advantage in the eyes of men. Not, however, that mankind will be in the main without religion. Very evidently otherwise. Religiousness will be a mark of the last days. Men will have "a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof;" they will be "ever learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth; preparing themselves, although they know it not, for the worship of that wicked one, whose coming shall be "after the power of Satan," and who "as God," sitting in the Temple of God, will show himself "that he is God." 2

SATISFACTORY, therefore, the state of the professing Church will not be. And the true Church of the Lord's believing people will be MUCH TRIED. There will be an urgent call for watchfulness and prayer, that the things which remain and are ready to die may be strengthened; there will be need for looking well both to the girdle and the lamp, and for the maintenance of a simple childlike faith in the all-sufficient Saviour.

contradiction.

We have seen

But here seems to be that the Church will not apostatize—that a persecution unto death (so far as the whole Church is concerned) will not take place; and yet that our Lord Himself has intimated, and the Inspired Writers have led us clearly to conclude, that when the Judge of all men shall

1 2 Tim. iii. 3-5.

2 2 Thess. ii. 4.

descend upon the earth, it will be, as it were, a question whether He will find one true believer there; whether there will be any Church whatever in the world to welcome His appearing. In other words-that there will be a people ready, waiting, watching for the Lord's Advent, and yet that there will be no faith, no love, no readiness, and no expectancy, but only sin, misery, and anguish of heart, among the multitudes of earth.

But there is no real contradiction here; all is plain and clear, although the solution of the difficulty may perchance oppose itself to the ideas prevailing among Christian people. Let us, however, proceed to an examination of this matter.

We will again refer to our Lord's assertion, "As the days of Noe were, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. . . . As it was in the days of Lot. . . even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.” 1

NOAH was safely shut within the ark, for "God shut him in "2 before the flood descended upon the earth. And Lor was lodged in the little city ZoAR, which was given as an answer to his prayers, before the fire and brimstone were poured down on Sodom. We remember how the destroying angel bade him quickly leave the doomed city: "Haste thee, escape thither (that is, to

1 Luke xvii. 26-30, and elsewhere,

2 Gen. vii. 17.