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new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Then let us reckon forward 1335 years from the last date, and we reach A.D. 1873 of our stirring times. Of this latter period twelve hundred and sixty years are to be assigned to the dominion of the papacy; seventy-five years remain as the duration of the time of the end. I have a suspicion that it is in allusion to this duration of seventy-five years that our Lord declared, "This, or the same generation, shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled" (Mart. xxiv. 34); for he is evidently alluding to the terrible calamities of the last times. In this view how apposite are the words immediately following, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." The realities of this solemn time being present to His omniscient view suggest the allusion. He beholds these heavens wrapped together as a vesture to be laid aside, the earth and all the works therein burned up; and He exclaims, "The heavens and the earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away."

But it may be asked, and very properly too, How can we reconcile with these very probable dates the words of our Redeemer which you have prefixed to these approximations, "But of that day and hour knoweth no man; no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." We might answer that the present tense is here used. Our Lord does not assert that no man shall ever know, The Prophet Daniel also tells us (xii. 10) "The wise shall understand:" (also in verse 9) "The words are sealed up and closed till the time of the end." Surely the legitimate inference is that at the time of the end they are to be unsealed. "And they that understand among the people shall instruct many. (xi. 33.) Nay, the Holy Spirit of truth, guiding us unto all truth, prefaces the wondrous unveiling of these times of the end, with these most solemn words: "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy; and watch narrowly those things that are written therein, for the time is nigh." (Rev. i. 3.) Our blessed Lord institutes a comparison between the days that were before the flood and these last times. "But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." So suddenly, with as terrible a surprise; unexpectedly, even to those that appear to be on the watch; as a thief in the night." But let it be borne in mind, that even in those days that were before the flood, a definite space of time was assigned to those sinners. We read (Gen. vi. 3) "His days shall be a hundred and twenty years." In the hundred and twentieth year "the flood came and swept them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be in his day." Though the day and the hour are not known, yet when this age is to terminate, yet once again a certain date is mercifully granted to those of understanding heart, that they may be thereby stimulated to give "all diligence to make their calling and their election sure." Brethren, beloved in the Lord, we deprecate all attempts at prophesying; we would shrink from the presumption of being wise above, and beyond what is written; but it is a strange, yea, passing strange, that the Scripture visions should foreshadow these very times; that utterly independent Scripture dates should approximate these very times. Granted, that they may not be exactly made out through the confusedness of past chronology, yet they are wonderful approximations after all. In the lifetime of one, who is even now in

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the prime of his days, these stupendous seals of prophecy may be broken, and there may be enacted before our eyes the catastrophe of our world's eventful drama. Suffer the world of exhortation, brethren, from the Apostle Paul, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching: "And that knowing the time, that it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand; let us cast off the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light." (Rom. xiii. 12.) "And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ." (2 Thess. iv. 5.) Even so; come quickly, Lord Jesus!"

THOUGHTS ON MARK XIII. 32-37.

BY REV. RICHARD CHESTER.

We find in this passage of scripture a simple, practical, reiterated injunction concerning the second advent of our blessed Lord. We find connected therewith the statement of a plain, indisputable fact. The injunction, as we read it, thrice reiterated, is to "watch" for that advent. The statement connected with this injunction, and which is twice assigned as the reason for its being given, is, that the time of that advent is unknown. Take ye heed, watch and pray, for ye know not when the time is " (verse 33). "Watch ye, therefore, for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at cockerowing, or in the morning" (verse 36).

This injunction is addressed, and this reason for it is assigned, not to the world at large (which we have abundant proof from other passages was, and is, and will ever be, not only in utter ignorance, but in as utter heedlessness concerning the Saviour's coming), but specially to his disciples then present (see verses 1-5), and to all his disciples down to the actual occurrence of the event. "What I say unto you, I say unto all, watch" (verse 37). Nor are such to regard their ignorance upon this subject as a source of regret or of jealousy, as though something were withheld from them which a Father's love or a Master's confidence might well have revealed. They share this want of knowledge with the angels in heaven, and even with the human nature of the Son of God himself while on carth. "Of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father" (verse 32). It is thought by some that as this ignorance attached to the human nature of our Lord only while he was on earth, and cannot be supposed to continue now that he is in heaven, even so was it only the portion of his disciples previous to the descent of the Holy Spirit, and cannot be considered as necessarily adhering to those who now seek for and experience the fulfilment of the promise of the Spirit's guidance "into all truth," of his showing them "things to come." It is, however, evident that the Spirit did not, subsequent to his descent, inform any of the apostles of our Lord

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ne merenu uivisions of the night, (the night being the time of the Saviour's absence. Rom. xiii. 12, 2, Peter i. 19), "at even, or at midnight, or at cockcrowing, or in the

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of the day or the hour of his coming. His own words to them, when speaking but ten days before the descent of the Spirit, upon the subject of the time of the advent were, "It is not for you to know the times and the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power" (Acts i. 7). Of such times and seasons accordingly the inspired writers always speak throughout the epistles as matters of uncertainty (1 Thess. v. 1; 2 Peter iii. 8, &c.). To argue, therefore, as some do, that the day and the hour of the Lord's coming may now be very nearly, if not fully and accurately, ascertained by the teaching of the Spirit and the study of the Word, although such were, during his sojourn on earth, altogether unknown, seems manifestly at variance with the express and emphatic declarations of Holy Writ. It is true, indeed, that St. Paul tells the Thessalonian believers that they were "not in darkness that that day should overtake them as a thief" (as it will overtake the world) (1 Thess. v. 4). But the reason of this is not that they knew, or were to know, the day or the hour, but that they were not not "sleeping," but watching" (verse 6). Had they known the day and the hour, and that they were at all events nearly two thousand years distant, then might they lawfully have gone altogether to sleep upon the subject; then would watchfulness for the second advent have been an absurdity and an impossibility with them.

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If then we have in the passage before us an injunction to watchfulness for his coming, addressed by our blessed Lord to the whole body of His believing people, and, as a reason for that watchfulness, the statement made by Him that the time of His coming, however fixed in the counsels of the Father, was, and would continue to be to them unknown; the passage becomes a test to which in all fairness we may bring any and every scheme or system of prophetic interpretation concerning the second advent, to determine their soundness and truthfulness thereby. We do not of course intend to affirm that any view or interpretation which is not at variance with this passage, must therefore in every other respect be true--but simply that the view, or the interpretation which is altogether contrary to, or irreconcilable with this passage cannot possibly be correct. How this can be disputed it is difficult to conceive.

We bring then in the first place, to the test of this passage the postmillennial theory and system of prophetic interpretation. Is it possible to reconcile it therewith? Let it only be clearly understood, as a glance at the context throughout the entire chapter will suffice to determine, that it is neither to death nor to the destruction of Jerusalem, but to the actual, personal, coming from heaven of the Lord Jesus Christ, that this passage refers, and watchfulness for which it enjoins--and, fearless of an attempt at refutation we answer emphatically, No! To have exhorted disciples then, or to exhort disciples now, to watchfulness for an event between which and them they were to believe that there intervened a yet uncommenced millennium, were an act of absurdity of which it is lamentable to think that our beloved Lord should even by remote implication be accused. To speak of an event as one that might possibly occur at any one of the different divisions of the night, (the night being the time of the Saviour's absence. Rom. xiii. 12, 2, Peter i. 19), "at even, or at midnight, or at cockcrowing, or in the