And if this glorious hope tends to elevate and sanctify God's children, assuredly it gives them a very full spring of consolation in their trying conflicts and sorrows. Now, "we see through a glass darkly;" but we have the promise, "then, face to face." Now we are called to mourn over the inbred corruption which battles with the heavenly principle implanted by the Spirit; but then we shall have cast off the flesh, and be raised up in the perfect likeness of our Lord. Now we see the ravages of sin, and the triumphs of Satan; but then, the strong man shall give place to the stronger, and we shall live in the atmosphere of love, and praise, and holy joy. In a word, at that harvest-day, we shall hear a voice that will vibrate through the length and breadth of creation: "Behold, I make all things new."

O Saviour, come speedily to thy waiting Church come and close the awful controversy between light and darkness, between sin and holinesscome and take thy kingdom, and we shall live in thy presence, and raise the great hallelujah: "The Lord God omnipotent reigneth." We would not be impatient amidst existing evils-we would not dictate to thee the times and the seasons; but thou hast taught us to love thine appearing, and to utter the prayer, "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly."

We long for the day when thou shalt put in the sickle, because the harvest of the earth is fully ripe. We are waiting to hear thy command to the angelic reapers, to cast out of thy kingdom all things that offend. We are waiting to hear the trumpet proclaim, "the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ :" but above all we wait for thee. Thou art the great object of our hope-the source of our peace-the rock of our salvation—the joy of our heart. We wait for thee more than they that wait for the morning. Again and again we repeat our all-expressive prayer, “Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.” Amen.

Now to God the Father, &c.

LECTURE IX.

THE SIGNS OF THE LORD'S COMING.

BY THE REV. T. R. BIRKS, M.A.,

RECTOR OF KELSHALL, HERTS.

Parable of the Fig-Trer.

MATT. XXIV. 32, 33.

"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 shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors."

THESE words of our Lord, with their immediate context, are one of the chief paradoxes of the New Testament. For many ages they have been a stumbling-block to the unbeliever, and have often exercised the faith of the humble Christian. Sceptics have boldly inferred that the prediction has failed, and that our Lord must either have been deceived himself, or willingly have deceived his

followers. They sarcastically tell us, that the hope of his speedy return, which was grounded on the literal sense of his words, "however respectable for its usefulness and antiquity, has been refuted by long experience;" and that "the revolution of seventeen centuries has instructed us not to press too closely the mysterious language of prophecy and revelation." Even Christian expositors, by the variety of their efforts to remove the difficulty, have seemed almost to confirm the truth of the charge, and to leave a cloud of thick darkness resting upon the whole prophecy.

What are the circumstances under which the parable was uttered? Our Lord had denounced to the Jews that all the righteous blood, shed from the beginning of the world, would be visited on that unbelieving generation. He had closed his ministry among them with the solemn warning— "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate." His disciples are filled with surprise and sorrow. They appear to plead with Him for a reversal of the sentence, in their fond affection for that holy and beautiful house, where their fathers worshipped. When He leaves the temple, one of them points out to Him the fineness and beauty of its foundadation and porticoes; and says to Him, Master, see what manner of stones, and what buildings are here! But He only repeats the warning more

fully than before, "Seest thou these great buildings? There shall not be left one stone upon another which shall not be thrown down."

The disciples are alarmed and surprised by this unexpected denunciation. Their fond hope, that the kingdom of God would immediately appear, is suddenly blighted, and leaves an aching void in their hearts. When they reach the Mount of Olives, on their return from the temple, towards Bethany, the four chief Apostles come to Him privately, and ask for further light on the meaning of this prediction. Our Lord seats himself on the mountain side, where, a few years later, the Roman standards were to be planted against the city there, within view of the temple, while its pinnacles were bathed, perhaps, in the light of the setting sun, He listens to their earnest inquiry,-"Tell us when shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the age?" When will this threatened desolation of the temple be fulfilled, and when shall these sorrows be swallowed up in the peace and glory of Messiah's promised kingdom?

Our Lord answers their double inquiry. He announces the sufferings and sorrows of his own disciples, the rise of many false Christs, rumours of war, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes, and the spread of the Gospel through the heathen