rom the very nature of the subject, is worthy of close
and candid investigation. We accept the Bible as a revelation from
Heaven. What God has made known in that book ceases to be a
mystery. "The secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but
those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children
forever." Deut. 29:29. If the Sacred Scriptures have revealed
nothing concerning the time of the coming of our Lord, then we
can know nothing concerning it. But if they have definitely
informed us that we may know when "it
v
is near, even at the doors," then these things belong to us and to
our children. Believing that he has given all the Holy Scriptures for
a wise purpose,–for our learning and benefit,–we consider it not
merely our privilege, but our duty, to search the Scriptures, with an
earnest desire to know the whole revealed will of God.
By careful and prayerful attention to the prophetic discourse of
the Son of God, given in answer to the inquiry of the disciples, the
reader will, we trust, receive light upon this important question.
And as he reads the following pages, may the Holy Spirit open to
his mind the beautiful harmony of the subject in its several parts,
as fulfilled in the experience of the church from the time of the first
advent of Christ to the close of human probation.
EXPOSITION OF MATTHEW XXIV
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Disciples–"What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end
of the world?"
Jesus–"When ye shall see all these things, know that it is near,
even at the doors."
Probably there is no chapter in the Bible which speaks more
fully and more definitely on the second coming of Christ, than
Matthew 24; and there is no chapter in the entire Bible which has
been the subject of greater controversy. But the nature of the
controversy has almost entirely changed within the last forty yea