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sen, Faucett, Schall, Bengel, Candn Ryle; it was the position of Calvin, Zwingle, Melancthon, Luther, Knox, and the Wesleys. It was the position of John Bunyan, Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley. It was the position of Candlish and Guthrie, of Robert Hall and Thomas Chalmers, Andrew and Horatius Bonar, Nathaniel West, Murray McCheyne and Adolph Sa- phir; of Gaussen, Van Oosterzee’, Auberlen, Baumgarten; of Hoffman, Stockmeyer, Lange and Shenkel. It was the position of Spurgeon, and Moody, and Brooks, and Moorehead, and Gordon, and Blaekstone; of Pier son and Penn; and is that of Morgan; of Munhall and Chapman; of Halde- man and Dixon; of Torrey and Sco field. In the language of Paul to the Hebrews, “What shall I say more; the time would fail me to tell of” Craven, Patterson, Erdman and Dun- widdy; of Maitland, Birkes, Bicker- steth and Brock; of McNeile and the McNeals; of Mclllvaine and Hen- shaw, and Nicholson and Hastings; of the Robertsons—Frederick W. and John; of Herr Saunders and Harris and Evans and Stifler, and Lorimer and Peters, and Durbin and Parker and Gilbert and Foster and Lummis, and others too numerous to mention, all of whom have obtained a good tes timony in their proclamation of “the faith once for all delivered to the saints.” Massillon is quoted as having said “that in the days of primitive Chris tianity it would have been deemed a kind of apostacy not to sigh for the return of the Lord.” “Strange it is,” remarks A. J. Gordon, “that we have reached an age where it is counted an eccentricity to love His appearance and a theological error to cry with the best-loved apostles, “Even so, come Lord Jesus.” And yet those men be fore whose eyes the Scriptures have unfolded with the greatest beauty, and whose hearts have drunk most deeply
from their fountains of truth, not only join in that cry, but unite their voices, in proclaiming His coming as the con summation of the age, the goal of the Church—the crowning of Christ Him self—the only hope of the world’s re demption. 2. Its effect in the deepening of the spiritual life. These are days when this is a theme much discussed. Many of the speakers of recent great Chris tian assemblies have been sounding the “deepening of the spiritual life,” as the all essential note. But not all of them have been sounding the “deepening of the spiritual life,” as the all essential note. But not all of them have seen the Scriptural connec tion, or even the historical evidences, that the doctrine of “the Second Com ing of Christ” relates itself to the deep ening of the spiritual life as cause to effect! “Sobriety” of thought is nat ural to those that know perfectly that “the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” “The preservation of one’s whole spirit, soul, and body” in “blamelessness,” is attempted by those that look for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. “Every man that hath this hope set on him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” Holy conversation and godliness must characterize those that are truly “looking for and hastening the com ing of our Lord.” The denial “of ungodliness and worldly lusts” belongs also to those that understand “that blessed hope of the glorious appearing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” As to “watchfulness and prayer,” it is natural to those that know not what hour their Lord doth come, but under stand that it will be in a moment when they think not! Utter faithfulness is the natural result from the gospel no tion, “the Lord is at hand.” The one reason why the Church is flirting with the world, and even play ing the harlot, is because she has put out of her mind the expectation of
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