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THE KING’S BUSINESS
shared, would be completely de stroyed : “There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.” The disciples nat urally associated such a catastrophe with the end of the age, when His own return would take place. They doubtless thought the two events would coincide, and so their question took 'la ;two-fold form, ' “When ;shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of Thy coming?” SIGN OF HIS COMING. In His reply our Lord keeps the two events in view. As He looks down 'the future the destruction of the temple is in the immediate fore ground and His second coming in the distant background. His whole ad dress gives a panoramic view of the period that was to elapse between His departure from the world and His return, and it runs along the follow ing plan. General characteristics of the whole period (ch. 24:3-14). Spe cial predictions concerning the fall of Jerusalem and the temple (ch. 24:13 28). Special predictions concerning His second coming (ch. 24:29-51). Illustrations enforcing the practical lessons of the discourse (ch. 25). Without going into an exposition of the whole of our Lord’s address, let us gather from it, with the help of the parallel account in the 21st chap ter of Luke, some of the outstanding features which are not merely signs of the second coming, but are also signs of the times in which we live. L A national sign. “Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. | . . For mation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom : and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in divers places” (ch. 24:6, 7). That is. there shall be great national commotions and disasters. These, things do not indicate that the
Lord is immediately at hand. They are rather characteristic of the whole dispensation up to the time of His re turn. There shall be no peace among the nations nor harmony in creation until the Prince of Peace Himself re turns. The Lord warns us against concluding that events such as these are precursors of His immediate re- ,turn, for H.e -iadds, Nall: these things must come to pass, but the- end is not yet.” But while it is to be remem bered that the occurrence of these great disasters in the world at any time is not necessarily a sign of the Lord’s nearness, yet it may perhaps be true to say that as they are symp toms and signs of the world’s need of Christ they may be aggravated and emphasized as the age runs on, and that the greatest wars and the most frequent physical disturbances may be expected immediately before His ap pearance. The present unprecedent ed war, while not necessarily indica tive of the immediate return of our Lord, is at least a manifest sign of the utter failure of the nations and of their urgent need for the speedy com ing of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. 2. A religious sign. The wide spread decay of faith and devotion. “And many false prophets shall arise and shall deceive many. And be cause iniquity shall abound, the love of the many shall wax cold” (ch. 24: 11, 12). Mere religious declension in itself is not a sign of the immediate return „of our Lord, for history tells us of several such periods in the past. The character of that religious declension which will immediately precede the coming of the Lord is, more explicitly defined for us by three of the Apostolic writers in subsequent parts.of the.-New Testament. Each of the Apostles, Paul, Peter and John, describes a special feature of the re ligious condition of the last days.
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