Morning journal and courier., 1892-02-01

out how to do it. but in the name of the King of the kingdom we are with them for l they are striving for true and practical l thing. And if the end must come with a struggle, why, can conceive of London l and Paris and New York become not only l centers of commercial and political su- premacy, but practical, living examples of regenerated society, and tyranny and ignorance and license being pushed off toward Siberia and centering and gather ing immense strength in Russia, pouring themselves back on these hardly won vantage grounds of truth till at last the good rise up and in one fell sweep wipe them from the earth. All this is possible to toiling human pa tience without any more immediate help than the scriptural leadership we now have, and every man and woman, every boy and girl that comes to this altar and pledges allegiance to, look upon just as the Emperior William looks upon tall Prussian, as 8 soldier. Jesus, the king, is ready, the all-father hath committed all things to him and he is waiting for us till we, ths kingdom, are ready. Every word of truth you speak, every prayer you utter, every bribe of the world you refuse, has, tens on the preparedness of the kingdom.
 The harvest and the end of @on may come by slow process of natural evolution as the Mesozoic age developed out of the Paleozoic, as republicanism has slowly fought it's way out from serfdom. But I look for tremendous impulse, @ brilliant stroke, 8 coup de etat from Jesus himself. Not so much because see an inherent ne cessity, for it is because he voluntarily promise once before and expect him to keep it again: "Never mind" " he said to our weeping mother Eve, "thy seed shall crush the serpent's head yet," and the chill dren of Eve toiled along through weary milleniums of natural evolution trying to make good law and then be good by it and where we would be to-day don't know but one night there rang through the startled air an angel pean 'tthere is born in Bethlehem of Judea to-day saviour which is the king. Every one of the prom ises of his coming he literally fulfilled from his birth in Bethlehem of 8 virgin to his sale for thirty pieces of silver: The promises of his first coming have all been proved to mean exactly what they said This same Jesus thirty three years later led his fol- | lowers out as far as Bethany and ascended up before them in cloud to heaven And l while they stood gazing after him two l angels stood beside them and said "this | same Jesus shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go." And thisis not | the only verse, one verse in thirty in the | new testament refers to the second com ing of Christ and in the old testament l there are twenty times more passages re- | ferring to the scond coming than to the | first.
 There are three explanations offered to | avoid accepting these passages as meaning what they say. First-The 1 second coming of Christ is at the death of the believer when Christ comes to take him to glory. Jesus said to Peter of John eff will that he tarry till I come what is that to thee!" If Christ's coming means | death, then, of course, John tarries till he l comes and Christ's words become Eff I will that he lives till he dies what is that to thee,"-a vulgar punning snub impossi- ble to the lips of Christ.
 Second-It is said Chriet's coming means the destruction of Jerusalem. Such an idea can only have arisen through sup posing that the twenty-fourth of Matthew all refers to one event, when it is plain
 the disciples distinctly ask him three i.e., the destruction of Jerusalem, what shall be the sign of thy con- ing and what shall be the sign of the end of the world. I sup pose this is the most popular theory of Christ's second coming but in what possi- l ble sense can the march of the Roman armies over the walls of Jerusalem be called the coming of Christ. Suppose we had had word that the Prince of Wales 1 was going to visit America this winter, he didn't come, but the grip came. would
 we be satisfied to call that his coming. l There is no more reason why the
 destruction of Jerusalem should be called the coming of Christ than why the Chicago fire should be called the coming of Christ.
 After the crucifxion of Jesus Jerusalem didn't begin to be as important to the kingdom as Chicago.
 Third-It is said the second coming of
 Christ is said to mean the descent of the
 holy ghost This theory hardly needs
 comment. Besides making the epistles full l of anachronisms it is too obvious -to any
 simple believer that Christ never confounds
 himself with the holy spirit. He and the
 comforter are always two. He is going to
 send ths comforter and he is to be our
 guide, but his leadership is very different
 thing from the personal military leadership
 of Jesus. Add to this that in no sense
 have the glowing pictures of prophecy ever
 been fulfilled, while those same prophecies
 relating to his first coming have been full
 filled literally, and think we have right
 to expect our chief among us again in great
 power and glory.
 By virtue of his first coming in humility
 he is of course present with us now, and
 since death ends all the past we can play
 in hls coming till he come; he may be
 said to have come as far as the
 believer is concerned when he dies. But in
 no sense do these truths satisfy his own or
 our expectation.
 Ours is it in our day and generation to
 work with all our might for purer
 church, 8 widespread gospel, a better
 organized society, for because of the lack
 of these is the coming delayed, and then to | hone and watch for every time the sun-
 light rolls in splendor from the beauty of
 the hills it may be it will reveal our Lord
 the king come back to lead us on to the end of the eon. Oh this is the cheery
 sunny, merry conception of Christianity.
 It is bound to make a fighting regiment
 out of any church. And it is scriptural