The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-10-30 00:00:00

THE SPEEDY COMING OF OUR LORD.

A lecture on the above subject was delivered in
the Corn Exchange, on Wednesday evening last,
by a gentleman who was described on the placards
as an "Evangelist serving under the Lord's res-
tored Apostles." The Lecturer was accompanied
on the platform bysthe Mr. T. Hales, pastor of the
Catholic Apostolic Church in this town.
There was a very good attendance, especially
when the extraordinary inclemency of the weather
was taken into consideration.
The Lecturer said they had met together to
consider the most solemn and important subjects
that could engage the attention of Christian people,
and he was sure that every right-minded person
present would be glad to united with him in im-
ploring God's assistance to enable them to under-
stands these great truths. Prayer having been
off ere up,
The Lecturer then read the bill calling the meet- I
ing, which was as follows :—" The speedy coming !
of our Lord Jesus Christ; signs of His very near
approach,:and of the terrible judgments coming
upon the earth. God's special message concerning
the restoration of the Pentecostal gifts and minis-
tries in the church; the sealing of the 144,000;
, the first resurrection and the translation; the
coming great tribulation, and the revelation and
doom of the last Antichrist." The lecturer stated
that he was suffering from a severe cold; but he
hoped they would bear with him, whilst he was
doing his best to expound the above subjects. To
prevent any disappointment, confusion, or disturb-
aace, he would tell them at once that those who
wished to ask any questions would be expected to
write them down, and hand them up to him at the
close of the lecture. He knew there was a certain
class of persons who for the sake of a little cheap
notoriety would interrupt public speakers on the
most trivial pretexts, but he had set his face like a
flint against such proceedings, and was determined
to suppress at once any attempt to cause confusion.
God was the source of order, and all Christians
and servants of God would preserve order and sup-
press all disturbance. He would also tell them
that he was not only going to deliver the two ad-
dresses announced in that hall, but he had been
able to arrange to preach a course of sermons in
the Catholic Apostolic Church in this town. There-
fore, if any one wished to communicate with him
they would have the fullest opportunity of doing
so. Without any further preface, he would at
once enter upon the subject which they were met
to discuss. What, then, was meant by the speedy
coining of our Lord Jesus Christ. They meant by
that what Christ had said. They all knew that
when he left this earth he said he should come
again, and they all knew that when he ascended
from the midst of his disciples he did so as a man
bodily. It was not at the time of his death on the
cross that He ascended to the right hand of His
Father. Then he descended somewhere, and the
creed stated that he descended into hell. This
or d , "hell," had come down to us with something
of a different signification to that in which it had
been orginally used by the translators. It did not
mean a place of torment. It meant Hades; an
invisible unseen place for departed spirits, and St.
Peter said that when our Lord died he went and
preached to tha spirits in prison, and it was
not until after his resursection bodily that he had
received back his body from the grave—not in cor-
ruption but in incorruption. It was then that he
ascended to the right of the Father, bodily. His
disciples were talking to him up to the last moment
previous to him taking his place at the right hand
of the Majesty of the Most High. They saw Him
until the clouds enveloped Him and obscured Him
from their sight. And whilst they were gazing
two angels appeared to them, and told them that
Jesus who had been taken up into heaven, should
come again in like manner as they had seen him
go, That was the true Christian doctrine of the
second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. What
about his near approach, and the terrible judg-
ments coming upon the earth. He was somewhat
struck by an incident that occurred to him in this
town one day last week. He was looking at the
placard announcing that address outside of the
tradesman's premises where it was printed, when
a grave elderly looking man noticed him and said,
"He won't come for these hundreds of years yet."
He (the lecturer) turned and said "You seem to
be wiser than our Lord himself, for he said he did
not know the day nor the hour." "Well," he said
"There are many prophecies of Scripture which
will have to be accomplished before our Lord
comes." He (the (lecturer) asked him to give one
but he could not do so. He turned into the trades-;
man's shop, and he heard the voice of the same
man. He said "I will give you one. They shall
all be of one 'mind." He asked the man to give
him chapter and verse for that, but he could not
do so, for the fact was there were no such words
in the Bible. This little incident opened up to him
what was the general opinion of Christian people
in the matter. There appeared to prevail an idea
that something very strange would happen before
the Lord should come. Some thought the whole
world was to be converted before the Lord should
come. Now, what was to take place before the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. There were
statements in the Word of God which showed
what really would take place. This said the know-
ledge of the Lord should cover the earth as the
waters of the mighty deep. That was the kind of
text that had been in men's minds for the last 50
years, and that was the kind of text constantly
made use of at missionary meetings. Teat was
the reason so many people were convinced that the
world was to be converted before the Lord should
come, and they saw it was not converted, and they
put it off for hundreds of thousands of years
Those passages did not apply to that dispensation
.at all. They were special premises of God to his
ancient people the Jews, which were to be found
in the book of the prophet Jeremiah. The great
qusstion after au i was this. Would those words
and promises take place in this present dispensa-
tion, before the Lord should come, and he answered
em2hatically, " No." They might ask on what
grounds he gave such a denial. He would give
them. If they turned to the 24th chapter of the
Gospel according to St. Matthew, they would find
that Jesus had been speaking about Jerusalem, and
he had been constrained to cry out, "0 Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and
stoaest them which are sent unto thee, how often
would I have gathered thy children together, even
as alien gathereth her chickens under her wings,
and ye would not. Behold, your house is left unto
you desolate. For I say unto you, ye shall not see
me henceforth, till ye shall say, blessed is he that
comith in the name of the Lord." He had gone
unto his own and his own received him not. They
rejected him as a blasphemer, and so now that he
arrived very near to the close of his ministry
amongst them he made use of those sorrowful
words, and foretold what should happen to them
on account of their apostacy. What fowllowed.
Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and
his disciples came to him for to shew him the
buildings of the temple. Now, that temple was a
glorious structure. Herod had spent forty years
of time and labour and a great deal of money in
making it a model of beauty, and the Jews were
proud of it, the same as
.sve should be if it was in
our own country; especially if the building was
—like the temple—of a national character. It was
the house of God, and as a building it was more
beauiful than it had ever been before, and they
drew the Lord's attention to it. But when they
did so he said "Verily I say unto you there shall
not be left here one stone upon another, that shall
not be thrown down." That must have struck
dismay into the hearts of his disciples. That
must have struck dismay into the heart of an
loyal Jew, because of the direful tidings it fore-
boded; and, therefore, with troubled minds the
disciples came to him and asked him to explain
what he meant. "As he sat upon the Mount of
Olives the disciples came to him privately, saying,
tell us when shall these things be ?"—the destruc-
tion and overthrow of the temple'—' • and what
shall be the sign of thy coming," or the end of the
age or dispensation? Now, here were three ques-
tions proposed to our blessed Lord himself; ques-
tions which they would now consider. The first
related to the dissolution of the ancient Jewish
nation, and the overthrow of the temple of which
not one stone should be left upon another. The
second, was "'What shall be the signs of thy coin-
ing; and the third, the end of the age. Now, our
Lord answered those questione, and the whole -of
the 24th and 25th chapters .of St. Matthew were oc-
cupied in answering those questions. He appre-
hended that the way of looking at those questions
was to study those chapters, which would surely
tell them what was to take place; whether the
world was to be converted or not. The shortness
, of the time would prevent him from going very
fully into the subject. They had their own bibles
and they could peruse them at their leisure. The
first thing our blessed Lord did was to warn his
disciples. He said, "Take heed that no man de-
ceive you, for many shall come in my name saying,
I am Christ; and shall deceive many." Again,
"Ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see
that ye be not troubled: for all these things must
conic to pass, but the end is not yet." Did he say
that the nations should turn their swords into
plough-shares, and their spears into pruning
hooks. No, he said "Nation shall rise against
nation, and kingdom against kingdom's ; and there
shall be famines." And "Ye shall be afflicted and
hated of all nations, for my sake. And then shall
many be offended, and shall betray one another,
and shall hate one another." That was a very dif-
ferent statement to what he had heard in town,
that all should be of one mind. Instead of that
it should be all strife. "And many false prephets
shall rise, and shall deceive many." Our Lord re-
peated this warning. "And because iniquity shall
abound, the love Of many shall wax cold." So