THE KING’S BUSINESS
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heaven (1 Thess. 4:13—; 2 Thess. 1 and 2, etc., etc.). Not in secret but in the open; not by process, but by shock; not by evo lution, but by revolution; not by reforma tion, but by conflagration; not by a federa tion of peace, but with the trepidation of peril; not “within yOu,” but above, around about you-r^ks the lightning;” “As it was in the days of Noah . . . of Lot . . . they ate, drank, married, bought, sold, planted, builded.” Here is nothing of the “Ne- phelim,” nor the “wickedness,” nor the “evil imaginations” of Noah’s day (Gen. 6:1-6) ; nor of the “grievous” sin of Sodom (Gen. 18:20); all abounding in our day as then. Not the wickedness but the worldliness of men is emphasized; the world’s devotion to the pursuits and pleasures of “this present age;” its indifference to the “powers of the age to come;” its recklessness of the end of all; its false confidence that, since “all things continue as they were from the be ginning of creation” (which they have not, though they flatter themselves that there was no Deluge, no sodomic catastrophe, no examples of eternal fire—Jude 7), so they will continue; and in which confidence they plan and build; these it is which damn and will damn men and witness to an evil heart of unbelief—the godlessness which is the root of all “their works of ungodliness, which they have ungodly wrought, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him” (Jude IS, R. V.). 1. Let Them Commit Themselves to the Lord. Houses,1 goods, fields, shall have served their day. Let them go,i for go they will; department stores,' steel, _oil, beef plants; railways; stocks, bonds, mortgages, “securities” of all grades—gilt-edged and guilty-edged; dance halls, theaters, movies, museums, monuments, minsters;. airships, Titanics, dreadnoughts; subways, aque ducts, canals; expositions, capitals, West minsters, Hagues; this great Babylon, “Alas alas! in one hour so great riches is made desolate!” So—“when the kingdom III. . W h a t S hould t h e G odly D o W ho S ee th a t D a y ?
and the remainder of the chapters ; Dan. 7 :9-14). "Observation’’ is an accurate translation. But observation is an act of the subject (the observer) not a quality of the object (the thing observed). “The kingdom of God is within you,’’ no ; but (as in the R. V. margin) “in the midst’ of, or “among” you. Not one of those Pharisees had the K. of G. in him. It is true that thè K. of G., in its subjective aspect, is “within” believers (Rom. 14:17). But that is not referred to in this place ; : and even that has an outward show. The word means “The K. of G. is-not something to be distinguished by close observation or scrutiny.” We understand that the Lord meant : The coming of the kingdom is ob vious, in fact, if you were not blind you could see that it is already among you, for where the king and the works of the king dom are there the kingdom is (Matt. 12: 28; 21:23; Luke 10:9, 11). 2. Positively. He now addressed the disciples. The final and glorious manifes tation of the kingdom was not among them. Himself should yet suffer (ch. 24:26), and days of trial should come to them when they would long to see “One of the days of the Son of man,” one hour of the sweet security and rest of the kingdm; when they would say, “Lord Jesus, come quick ly.” Our days are such days. 3. Warnings. "When they shall say, Lo, here! or, Lo, there! go not after them.” When they shall say, “There is the king dom! the ultimate flower of Evolution now gradually unfolding or, “There is the kingdom! hewn out with syndicalism and dynamite;” or, “There as the fruit of Chris tian socialism and legislative reform;” or, “Here under the philanthropic sway of the Federation of churchly Christendom;” or, “Here, in the heart, the spiritual, invisible kingdom of the misapplied golden text, ‘The K. of G. is within you.’ ” This is our safeguard, “The kingdom comes not by scrutinizing this or that theory,” but “As the lightning”—you cannot mistake it. When Christ comes in His kingdom it will be in clouds of glory descending out of
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