116 The Fundamentals world, but for the personal presence of their Lord. Jesus Christ Himself was their hope, and His appearing they in- tensely loved and longed for. The attitude of the New Testament Church is represented by the Apostle John in the closing words of the Apocalypse. Visions of heavenly glory and millennial peace have passed before him. He has seen the new heaven and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, and the Holy City, New Jerusalem, whose light was like a stone most precious. But, at the end of it all, the longing of the aged apostle is not for these things to come. Greater than all these glories, dearer than all these dear things, is the Master Himself, and the prayer that rises from his heart as he closes his wondrous book is simply,“ Come, Lord Jesus.” The hope of the Church, then, is the Personal Return of her Lord. As Dr. David Brown stated it in his book on the Second Advent, sixty years ago, “the Redeemer’s second ap- pearing is the very pole-star of the Church.” Let us see how this hope lies upon the pages of the New Testament revelation, and how it influenced the life of the New Testament Church. 1. Christ taught His disciples to expect His return. This was the last of the stages through which His teaching about Himself advanced. In the early part of His ministry He seems to have kept His personality in the background; He forbade those whom He healed to tell about Him. Then there came a time when He asked the disciples, “Who do men say that I am?” and led them to think of His divine origin. After that He began to instruct them about His approaching death and resurrection, “His departure which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem” (Luke 9:31). In the last days of His ministry His return to the world largely occupied His own thoughts, and He kept it prominently before the minds of His disciples. During His last journey to Jerusalem He foreshadowed His own history in the parable of the nobleman going into a far country to receive a kingdom and return, who
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