Virginian-pilot. (Norfolk, Va.) 1898-1911, 1900-04-18
THE SECOND COMING.
BY Rev. J. J. Taylor, DID,, Free.
mason Street Baptist Church.
Text: Mat. x11iv. 80, "And They Shall Soc
the Son of Man Coming In tho Clouds
With Power and Great Glory"

Sunday morning the pastor. Rev. J. ~.
Taylor. D. D., preached a sermon Of
great power on 1.-The Second Coming"
He spoke to Il large, attentive and ap-
preciative audience in part as follows:
The coming of the Lord is familiar
conception among Gods people. In the
Old Testament the phrase refers espe-
cially to the coming of Messiah to alb
rogate the Jewish economy. to estab-
lish the dispensation Of grace, and to
open the door of faith to the nations.
In the New Testament 1t has double
significance. Incidentally it may refer
to important events in the experience
of men. or to great epochs in the un-
Holdings Of divine providence. In this
sense Jesus says, There be somg
standing here that shall not taste of
death till they sec the Son of Man Gem
Ing In his kingdom" Or He says to his
disciples. IT will come unto you, and
manifest myself unto YOU" But espe-
cially does 1t refer to n second coming
of Christ In the flesh, as the browning
event in the course Of redemption and
the elimination of Christian hopes.
This idea was deeply impressed on the
minds of the early Christians. Jesus
spoke of coming in glory with the holy
angels Paul urged the coming of the
Lord as a comfort to mourners. Peter
made known the same event; and
James said it draweth nigh. John on
Patmos cried. Behold. he cometh:"
and the angels over Olivet said, This
same Jesus shall come again."
AS to the time and method OF His
coming. Christians have long held di-
vergent views. During the life OF Je-
sus, he was expected to establish an
earthly reign. Some fifty years after
the death of the last apostle. the notion
of temporal kingdom was revived,
and for a hundred years it prevailed
with considerable power; but since that
time 1t has been held chiefly by fan
tastic parties, whose leaders have been
rather erratic. Their assurance is
sometimes amusing and always pa
thetic. They figure up Daniels "times,
time and half time as confidently as
a school master would figure up a sum
in arithmetic. To the visions of Ezekiel
and John, rs exquisite as the hues of
the dawn. as elusive as a dream. as
formless as the fringe Of a floating
cloud, they undertake to apply certain
rigid rules of their own invention, and
so TO extort secret which Is kept in
counsels of God. For of that day and
that hour knoweth no man; no, not the
angels in heaven" Their confident
prophecies have failed, and their as
cension robes have been eaten of
moths, or worn as garments for the
earth rather than the skies.
Another class of adventists fix no
date, but hold to the general idea of
n temporal reign extending over a thou
sand years and bringing all things in
to subsection to Christ. There is some
thing thrilling in the idea that any
morning may bring the great and no
table day of the Lord. Especially is
this notion fascinating to respondent
souls, who have toilcd in disappoint-
ment and failed to reap the expected
harvest In the closing days of his
eventful career. Luther exclaimed,
fifty years longer!" His friend Me-
lancthon predicted that two hundred
years would bring the end. Calvin's
apothegm was. Domino, Quousquc-O
Lord how long! In their conflicts with
the Papal Antichrst. these heroes of
faith sometimes grew respondent, and
felt that there was no help except in
the physical presence of the Lord.
Cranmer expressed similar sentiments.
and good Mr.. Ridley, only a few
months before he agony of the stake,
said, THE world without doubt draws
to close; let us say. with John, Come,
Lord Jesus, come quickly!'"
Through the cycles OF history, from
TurtulliaIi down, impatient spirits
have sighed for swifter conquests, and
have groaned over the tardy progress
of truth. In their eager desire for i'm
mediate results they have become
critics and schismatics, denouncing the
church and going without the camp"
as they say, to become heralds OF what
they regard as a new doctrine. Un-
like John the Baptist, they are not
trying to prepare people for the Lord
by preaching a baptism of repentance
for the remission OF sins, but are try
ing to meet a condition by heradinC
an event. They say. GO, preach,
whether anyone believes or not; keen
on the move until all have Heard, and
then Jesus will come and do the rest"
Moved by this cry many devout men
and women have hurried away to
foreign fields with but faint ideas of
what the work involves, and like the
crusading children of old have died
without accomplishing any perceptible
good.
This is called the bremillennarian
view. 1t rests primarily on a passage
in Rev. Xxx. 4: 81 saw thrones. and
they sat on them. and Judgment was
given to them; and the souls of those
that had been beheaded on account of
the testimony of Jesus, and on account
OF the word of God, and whoever did
not worship the beast nor his image,
and did not receive the mark on their
forehead and on their hand; and they