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by Edward Hoare
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Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #52767.
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TO THE PARISHIONERS OF RICHMOND, SURREY.
THE following Lectures on the World, the Visible Church, and the People of God, contain the substance of three Sermons preached in the Advent season of last year. They were written, and even committed to the press with the full expectation that our happy connexion would long remain unbroken. But it has pleased God to open before me another sphere of labour, which I have thought it right to undertake; and you must now receive this little volume as a parting memorial from one who can never cease to take the deepest interest in your welfare.
I should have preferred leaving with you something more characteristic of the general tenour of my ministry; something containing fuller statements upon the grand saving doctrines of the Gospel, such as the completeness of the atonement, the present, free, and perfect justification of every poor sinner that believes in Jesus; and the new birth as wrought by the Holy Ghost in the soul, and invariably accompanied by the fruits of the Spirit in the life. These are the truths which I hope have filled my sermons, and which I pray God may be written indelibly by the Holy Ghost upon your hearts.
But I trust the subject of this little volume may not be altogether ill-suited to our present circumstances, inasmuch as by directing us to the church’s dangers, it may lead us to pray for the church’s safety. If the view taken of St. Paul’s prophecy be correct, we live in times of peculiar peril, and must be prepared for a further increase of seduction and apostacy within the visible church. How earnest then should be the prayers of God’s people, in behalf of God’s ambassadors! He alone can make us able ministers of the New Testament; He alone can preserve us as faithful witnesses for Christ. I know well, brethren, that you have prayed habitually for me, and for that assurance I most heartily thank both God and you. And now I leave it with you as my earnest and solemn charge, that you will not relax those prayers, but increase and multiply them in behalf of him who is about to fill my place. Let his hands be strengthened by the believing intercessions of a faithful flock; let him go into your pulpit borne up by prayer. And may the God of all grace shower down both on you and him every rich blessing of his Spirit! May we hear the glad tidings of your undivided fellowship in the Gospel! And may an abundant answer be given to my unworthy though unceasing supplication, “that your hearts may be comforted, being knit together in love, unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ!”
EDWARD HOARE.
Richmond, Feb. 1846.
LECTURE I.
“BEHOLD I come quickly,” was the last promise, “Even so come, Lord Jesus,” the last prayer, in Scripture. The glorious prospect of this quick return was the constant joy of the Apostles and early disciples of our Lord. Nor can any thing be more marked than the contrast between our thoughts and theirs, in reference to this important subject. They were for ever anticipating the time, and falling into error through their eager haste for the coming kingdom; we are too prone to stave off the thought of it, as a thing distant and uncertain. They could not rest without an eager inquiry as to the times and seasons of his approach; we, on the other hand, are tempted to sit still in listless apathy, with the eye blinded to the facts of history, with the ear deaf to the voice of prophecy, and so regardless of the knowledge really given us by God. They lived at the outset of the church’s pilgrimage, with a distance of at least 1,800 years between them and their joyous hope; and yet they most eagerly inquired, “When shall these things be?” We live on the very verge of its conclusion, with the great climax full in view; yet we go on as if the world were to last for ever, steeped in apathy the most profound, with reference alike to the event itself and to its times.
This indifference has arisen, in some measure, from a certain vague expectation of some undefined changes that are expected to precede the advent. There is a general idea afloat that there will be some notice of the glorious day; and even thinking persons look for the universal conversion of the world before the present dispensation can be brought to a close. In other cases, the mind instinctively shelters itself behind the sameness and uniformity in the order of society. No man doubts that, at the time appointed, the sun will rise to-morrow, for the simple reason that, day after day, it has risen hitherto with exact and unvarying punctuality. On the same principle, the continuance of the world’s order deadens the expectation of a change. Society remains unaltered in its leading features: pleasure, trade, and politics, retain their hold on the public mind. The father’s interests engross the son; and the natural inference is, that things will continue to move on as heretofore, and that there is little either to be hoped or dreaded in the prophetic promise of the Lord’s return.
Believers therefore should study well those portions of prophecy which describe the state of the world preparatory to our Lord’s return. All witnesses for Christ should be acquainted with the forerunners of his coming. Those who watch for him should know the signs of his appearing. In studying these signs there are three great classes which naturally come under review, the world, the visible church, and the chosen saints of God. Into each of these, if the Lord permit, we will examine separately. And may He, who alone “teacheth us to profit,” so pour forth his Spirit, both on the writer and the reader, that all may be “led into the love of God, and the patient waiting for Christ!”
THE WORLD.
IN what condition will our Lord find society at his coming? What will be the spirit of the age? and what its habits and occupations when Christ appears to reign? This is our first question; and it is quite impossible to over-estimate its importance.
I. There will be no stop to men’s pleasures before the advent. There will be no startling announcement which will prevail to check the pleasure hunters. They will be found pursuing their giddy course just as at present: they will not find their souls solemnized in anticipation of the great event: the nearness of the advent will not suffice to bring on repentance: if they are not subdued by the cross of Christ, they will not be by the prospect of his appearing. The great machinery of God’s providence will move on without their perceiving it: the signal will be already given, the angelic hosts already on the wing, and the door of grace already closed, before there are any such startling appearances before the world as shall arouse the mere pleasure hunter from his dreams. Our Lord teaches this in Matthew, xxiv. 37–39.—“As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not, until the flood came and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Noah’s preaching was the only notice of the coming flood. The world pursued its own course until the very day that the rain began to fall. On the evening before they were feasting joyously, perhaps scoffingly at the toilsome labours of the man of God; many doubtless laughing at the ark; when, unexpectedly, without further notice, in the midst of their festivity, the storm gathered, the door was closed, and the unbelieving world overwhelmed in judgment. “So,” saith the Lord, “shall be the coming of the Son of man.”
The same passage from St. Matthew describes a state of active employment in the world:—“Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.” (xxiv. 40, 41). The men in the field and the women at the mill represent society as engaged in their daily callings. Nor is this description confined to the unconverted only; it includes both characters. Of the two men in the field one shall he taken, i.e. caught up to be with Christ as a believer; one shall be left, i.e. to perish as an unbeliever in the world: of the two women one shall be taken as a saint of God; one shall be left as a guilty subject of his wrath. The word here rendered “_taken_” is the same as was employed by our Lord when he said “I will come again and receive you unto myself;” and therefore all that are “taken” are chosen saints of God. Believers, therefore, and unbelievers, will go out on that very morning to their business. The streets, as usual, will be full, the shops open, trade flourishing; the accountant will be found at his desk, the merchant in his counting house, the tradesman in his shop, the judge on the bench, the lawyer at the bar, the statesman in his cabinet, and the children in the school. Nor will there be any check on their society. There will be the dinner party, the friendly intercourse of those who love the things of God, and the empty frivolities of those who live in pleasure. Men will have their balls, operas, and theatres, to the very last; they will dance on to the very morning of the resurrection. There will be no change in the habits of society, no alteration in the ordinary aspect of the world; we shall be living together in social life just as at present, with business, cares, and social duties; when suddenly—in a moment—in the twinkling of an eye—the whole shall be stopped by one shrill blast of the trump of God; and some rejoicing, some trembling, some singing hymns of joy, and some gnashing their teeth for woe, we shall be summoned before the Son of man.
These are features in the general aspect of society, which only show that there is nothing to prevent the immediate appearance of our Lord. But they do not belong exclusively to any period. For the last eighteen hundred years men have been “eating and drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage;” and, as far as these points are concerned, they may apply as well to any other time as ours. There are however other signs given, which tend rather especially to mark our own times as approaching closely to the latter days. Take for example the prophecy of Daniel, which teaches,
III. That, just before the advent, there shall be an increase of science and travelling. Daniel, xii. 4.—“But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” These words plainly refer to the latter days; not to the end itself, but to “the time of the end;” to the last period. Now, of this period there are two things predicted to the Prophet; the one religious, the other social; the religious change is the unsealing of the vision, or the opening of the eyes of believers to truths hitherto concealed in prophecy; the social change is the rapid progress of travelling and science throughout the world. It is the latter of these with which we are now concerned. At the time of the end, therefore, there is to be an increase of knowledge and of men running to and fro on the earth. Now, ask any common observer of mankind, one who looks on life without reference to prophecy or religion; ask him what he thinks the most remarkable feature in the present aspect of society, and he will tell you the rapid advance of science and increased facility of communication. Just contrast the world at large, in respect of travelling, with what it was fifty years ago. Most truly may it be said, “Men are running to and fro on the earth.” The leading commercial feature of the day is railway speculation; the habits of society are becoming materially changed through the ease and rapidity with which we travel. Thousands and tens of thousands have now become travellers, who, a few years since, had scarcely quitted the immediate neighbourhood of their native town. Nor is this confined to England. It is the same with America, Russia, India, and the whole continent of Europe. Look again at science, at the vast improvements in machinery, at the curious discoveries in every department of useful art, at the rapid increase of knowledge throughout the world. Look again at the connexion between the two. The increase of travelling is foretold by the Prophet in connexion with the advance of science. “Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” But in Daniel’s day there could appear no such connexion. The increase of knowledge could give no speed to the heavy motions of the camel. This connexion is a discovery of the last twenty or thirty years. The prophecy lay dormant for twenty-four centuries, when a new order of things sprang up amongst us; the connexion foretold in Daniel’s prophecy broke in upon the minds of men of science, and the immediate effect has been, that increased knowledge and increased travelling are going hand in hand throughout the world. Now I do not mean to strain this too far, or to represent it as a sign of the immediate approach of our Lord. It may be merely the commencement of a new era; “the time of the end” may be only dawning upon the world. But thus much we may safely say, that there has already been sufficient change in these two respects to satisfy the prophecy; that; if the coming were to be to-morrow, there is enough to convince the most hardened infidel, that Daniel’s words have received a literal, complete, and most remarkable, fulfilment. In this respect, therefore, the world is ready for the advent.
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