CONGRESS, 
 
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 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
THE 
 
 Crovning Hope. 
 
 BY G. Iv. YOUNG. 
 
 Eternal Hope! when yonder spheres sublime 
 Pealed their first notes to sound the march of Time, 
 Thy joyous youth began — but not to fade — 
 When all the sister planets have decayed ; 
 When wrapt in fire the realms of ether glow, 
 And Heaven's last thunder shakes the world below ; 
 Thou, undismayed, shalt o'er the ruins smile, 
 And light thy torch at Nature's funeral pile. 
 
 -THOMAS CAMPBELL. 
 
 ^0C T 12 1893 . 
 
 LYNN, MASS.: \^0/~ WA$^'^ 
 
 PRESS OF G. H. & W. A. NICHOLS. 
 1893. 
 
 h 
 

 Copyrighted by 
 O. L. YOUNG, 
 
 1893. 
 
 
 s 
 
 V* 
 
 N 
 
 The Library 
 of Congress 
 
 WASHINGTON 
 
PHEFRCE. 
 
 In offering this little book to the public I have no 
 especial excuse to make. It is not sent out to the 
 learned, but to everyday people. I ask of those into 
 whose hands it may fall that they read it carefully. 
 If it has faults (as no doubt it has), condemn them; 
 if it has merits (and it may have some), appreciate 
 them; if it has truths (as I know it has), receive 
 them ;— and may the blessing of the Lord so rest upon 
 reader and writer that, when Jesus comes, we may 
 enter into that rest which remaineth to the people of 
 God. G. L. Y. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Hope. - 7 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 The Crowning Hope. ------ 23 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 .The Advent; its Certainty, its Object, and its 
 
 Manner. - 42 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Present Effects of the Crowning Hope. - 75 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Realization of the Crowning Hope. - - 94 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 The Dark Side. - 118 
 
 CHAPTER YII 
 Condition of the World before the Advent - 131 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Facts of the Case. 155 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Are We Near the End ? 173 
 
jPpe. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Hope. 
 
 Hope springs eternal in the human breast; 
 Man never is, but always to be blest : 
 The soul, uneasy and confined from home, 
 Rests and expatiates in a life to come.— Pope. 
 
 Hope. How bright a word! one that sparkles 
 and glows with lustrous light! one that comes to 
 comfort us when we are cast down! one that 
 leaps forth to meet us and to greet us when our 
 hearts are sad! 
 
 Hail, thou blest word ! we love thee, and love 
 the things that, in anticipation, thou dost bring to 
 our view. Without thee our well-loved language 
 were nbt complete. Without thee our very lives 
 would still be dark. Thou art the opposite of 
 darkness and despair ; and through thee we lift 
 our heads and rejoice. Thou dost bring to us 
 joyous prospects of good, and dost fill our lives 
 with sweet anticipations of a gladsome future. 
 
 Hope is the great incentive of life. It is this 
 that, dwelling within the breast of men, spurs them 
 
8 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 on to earnest endeavors. Were it not that they 
 expected to obtain those things which are desir- 
 able they would give up in despair. The daily 
 laborer goes forth to the toilsome work before 
 him with a heart made light by the Hope of re- 
 ceiving his wages for the labor performed. The 
 hard working farmer plants in the Spring be- 
 cause he desires a crop in the Fall, and it is his 
 expectation to reap one. The mariner on his 
 voyage homeward looks hopefully forward to the 
 day when his vessel shall sail into the harbor of 
 home, and he, after receiving the due reward of 
 his labor, may have the happy privilege of meet- 
 ing again those whom he loves. The young 
 man enters college with the Hope that, by care- 
 ful attention to his studies, he may receive such 
 an education and become so developed mentally, 
 that he shall be fitted to enter upon one of the 
 learned professions, and so take his place among 
 the thinkers of the world. And, if it were not 
 that men were inspired by Hope, if they were 
 not enthused by the expectation of future attain- 
 ment and emolument, we fear their labor would 
 be less hearty and their efforts less severe. 
 
 From Joseph Addison's essay on " Religious 
 Hope" we quote the following: "Our actual 
 enjoyments are so few and transient, that man 
 would be a very miserable being, were he not 
 endowed with this passion, which gives him a 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 9 
 
 taste of those good things that may possibly 
 come into his possession. We should hope for 
 everything that is good, c says the old poet Linus,' 
 ' because there is nothing which may not be 
 hoped for, and nothing but what the gods are 
 able to give us.' Hope quickens all the still 
 parts of life, and keeps the mind awake in her 
 most remiss and indolent hours. It gives habit- 
 ual serenity and good humor. It is a kind of 
 vital heat to the soul, that cheers and gladdens 
 her, when she does not attend to it. It makes 
 pain easy, and labor pleasant." 
 
 "Auspicious Hope ! in thy sweet garden grow 
 Wreaths for each toil, a charm for every woe ; 
 Won by their sweets, in Nature's languid hour, 
 The way-worn pilgrim seeks thy summer bower; 
 There, as the wild bee murmurs on the wing, 
 What peaceful dreams thy handmaid spirits bring ! 
 What viewless forms the ZEolian organ play, 
 And sweep the furrowed lines of anxious thought 
 away !" — Campbell. 
 
 Without Hope man would indeed be miserable. 
 If misfortune came and cast him down, and he 
 had no Hope of ever rising above it, the suicidal 
 pistol ball would find his brain, or the poisonous 
 draught his vitals. If sorrow and misery once 
 were ours, and we had no Hope of outliving or 
 getting beyond it, our life would surely be a 
 blank. But in our darkness and despair, Hope, 
 cheering Hope, comes to us ; and, piercing the 
 gloom of our present, sheds luminous light on 
 
10 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 the possibilities and probabilities of the future. 
 Were it not so the burden would be too great to 
 be borne, and beneath it our poor hearts would 
 surely sink. But that Hope which "springs 
 eternal in the human breast," comes to us and 
 soothes us, and bids us onward go. 
 
 We all have Hope of some kind. One has 
 Hope that his circumstances will change, and 
 that the clouds which now overshade his life will 
 at some time be driven away by the shifting 
 winds of fortune, and the sunlight of peace and 
 joy be his. One has Hope that, through his own 
 industry, he may at some future time be enabled 
 to remove from his present impoverished condi- 
 tion and low-roofed hovel, to a more spacious 
 home with happier surroundings. The mind of 
 another glows with the pleasing Hope that, be- 
 cause of his own shrewdness and financiering 
 skill, he may attain to such a success in the busi- 
 ness world that he yet may hold his head as high 
 as some he knows. 
 
 But even Hope is often deceptive. How sel- 
 dom do we attain the full measure of that for 
 which we hoped ; and how many are the times 
 when disappointment quick and complete is the 
 finality of our cherished expectations. As Alex- 
 ander Cruden has said, " there is so much of im- 
 potence or deceit in all the means used to ob- 
 tain human desires, that the success is doubtful." 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 11 
 
 "For Hope is like dew on the blossom of morning, 
 
 The rinsh of the fair western sky, 
 The perfume of roses, the mist on the mountain, 
 
 The beauties whose life is to die, - *' 
 
 This little stanza speaks truth regarding that 
 Hope which is centred merely on the perishing 
 things of earth. And so, as all " worldly hopes 
 are terminated on empty vanishing things, gilded 
 over with the thin appearance of good," we 
 ought to be looking for something more real and 
 substantial. And, we are glad to know, there is, 
 within the reach of all, something more solid and 
 more lasting. There is the Hope that comes 
 from God, the Hope of eternal good. Said Rev. 
 Thomas Dixon, Jr., " Hope is of divine paren- 
 tage. Hope is the beautiful child born of the 
 union of Love and Life, and reared in the light 
 of Reason." 
 
 Again we quote from Mr. Addison : " No 
 kind of life is so happy as that which is full of 
 Hope, especially when the Hope is well grounded, 
 and when the object of it is of an exalted kind, 
 and in its nature proper to make the person 
 happy who enjoys it. This proposition must be 
 very evident to those who consider how few are 
 the present enjoyments of the most happy man, 
 and how insufficient to give him an entire satis- 
 faction and acquiescence in them. 
 
 "My next observation is this, that a religious 
 life is that which most abounds in a well-grounded 
 
12 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 Hope, and such a one as is fixed on objects that 
 are capable of making us entirely happy. This 
 Hope in a religious man is much more sure and 
 certain than the Hope of any temporal blessing, 
 as it is strengthened not only by reason, but by 
 faith. It has at the same time its eye perpet- 
 ually fixed on that state, which implies in the 
 very notion of it the most full and most complete 
 happiness." 
 
 Said H. K. White : 
 
 " The good man's Hope is laid far, far beyond 
 
 The sway of tempests, or the furious sweep 
 
 Of mortal desolation. —He beholds, 
 
 Unapprehensive, the gigantic stride 
 
 Of rampant Ruin, or the unstable waves 
 
 Of dark Vicissitude.— Even in death .... 
 
 Then, even then, that Hope forsakes him not, 
 
 For it exists beyond the narrow verge 
 
 Of the cold sepulchre.— The petty joys 
 
 Of fleeting life indignantly it spurned, 
 
 And rested on the bosom of its God. 
 
 This is man's only reasonable Hope ; 
 
 And 'tis a Hope which, cherished in the breast, 
 
 Shall not be disappointed." 
 
 Why do not people turn, more often than they 
 do, from earthly hopes to heavenly ones ? Why 
 not turn from uncertainties to that which is as 
 sure as the rising of the sun ? Why not exchange 
 human hopes for those that are divine? Why 
 not go from human frailities and deceit to the 
 strength and truthfulness of the promises of God ? 
 
 Who would be satisfied with this present, 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 13 
 
 earthly life ? Not merely is it a transitory exist- 
 ence, but it is an incomplete one. There is no 
 fullness of joy to be found here. Happiness 
 without alloy is unknown. People are contin- 
 ually seeking for pleasure, and yet abiding happi- 
 ness is something that ever eludes their grasp. 
 Try ever so perseveringly to find it, they are 
 never successful in their search. To obtain full 
 anfl perfect happiness baffles all their persistent 
 endeavors. 
 
 But how much misery there is ! On every side 
 we see it. Its pitiful manifestations are all 
 around us. We lift our eyes, and we see those 
 who are weighted down by burdens of woe. We 
 look, and we see lives from which all cheer seems 
 to have fled. We look, and we see faces that 
 bear but the marks of long suffering and distress. 
 We bend our ear, and we hear a wail of woe. 
 We listen, and we catch the cries of the sobbing 
 millions. We listen, and the heavy, hopeless 
 tones of dark despair are borne to our sympathiz- 
 ing ears. We turn, then, to our own sad heart, 
 and we find even that to be beating time to the 
 funeral dirge of a sinning and sorrowing world. 
 ;c Humanity marches ever to this universal 
 drum-beat of muffled anguish. The history of 
 the world is the story of incompleteness, cruelty, 
 and wrong, and suffering." 
 
 This life, of course, is not without its joys and 
 
14 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 gladness. Winter with us is not perpetual. 
 This life knows its vernal brightness, its summer 
 bloom, and its autnum fruit. The dry desert is 
 not without its green oasis. The voyage over 
 the tossing, turbulent sea of time is varied and 
 enlivened by the isles of beauty and pleasure 
 which we pass on the way. 
 
 But then again, no matter how happy may be 
 our life here, no matter how free we may be fr^m 
 those sad things which spoil the pleasure of life, 
 no matter how smooth may be our pathway nor 
 how bright our skies ; this is, at the longest, a 
 short life. And, perhaps, when life appears the 
 brightest, and our prospects the fairest, and we 
 have reached the very summit of our expecta- 
 tions, it may be that then the fell destroyer, 
 Death, will come to us, and, laying his dreadful 
 hand upon our vitals, call us to leave the active 
 scenes of a busy life, and dwell in the dark dun- 
 geon of the tomb. Death comes alike to all ; 
 to the kingly form dressed in richest robes and 
 sitting upon an imperial throne, as well as to the 
 cringing sycophant who cowers at the feet of 
 royalty ; it comes to those who dwell at ease and 
 roll in the luxury of wealth, as well as to the 
 abject wretch who gnaws a crust and sleeps in 
 the gutter. We know that this life will not last 
 forever; "It is appointed unto men once to 
 die." Are we then satisfied with things as they 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 15 
 
 are ? Shall we eat and drink, and live and die, 
 and bestow no nobler thought on the possibility 
 of a loftier existence ? 
 
 Ah, this life does not satisfy. The masses of 
 the people are not contented with it. If they, 
 for a little while, were to cease their hurry and 
 bustle, and give a little more time for sober 
 thought, its incompleteness and imperfection 
 would be brought home to them with greater 
 force. And, even as it is, there is much of un- 
 rest at the heart and unquietness in the mind. 
 The conscience at times is sorely troubled, and 
 well may it be. 
 
 Those who do not find satisfaction full and 
 complete in the present state of things can, if they 
 will, have a sure Hope of something better. God, 
 in His infinite goodness, has made provision for 
 our eternal redemption. And he who is living 
 with " no Hope, and without God in the world," 
 is dead while he liveth. We need not go around 
 depressed in spirits, and dejected in mind. We 
 need not hang down our heads like a bulrush. 
 It is our privilege to lift up our heads and re- 
 joice. Our lives can be filled with cheer. Hope, 
 cheering Hope, may be ours. We all can have 
 the blessed Hope of future life, of future bliss. 
 We all can ''rejoice with joy unspeakable, and 
 full of glory." We can all " rejoice in Hope of 
 the glory of God." We can look away by faith 
 
16 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 to the blessedness of the eternal world, and 
 claim its joys as ours. We can become 
 " heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." 
 We can "have a strong consolation, who 
 have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the 
 Hope set before us ; which Hope we have as an 
 anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast." 
 The darkness of our despair may be driven away, 
 and the radiant light of a heavenly Hope, in all 
 the fullness of its divine effulgence, stream in to 
 our opened heart. The former emptiness of our 
 lives will then be gone, and we will be overflow- 
 ing with the welling fullness of an elevating Hope. 
 We know there are those " having no Hope, 
 and without God in the world ;" but there are 
 others who have a Hope that is far superior to 
 any of the hopes of earth. Some of us have been 
 "saved by Hope." "We have our Hope set on 
 the living God," and, as a consequence, we now 
 "rejoice in Hope of the Glory of God." We 
 have been "begotten again unto a lively Hope, 
 by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the 
 dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and unde- 
 filed, and that fadeth not away." We have found 
 that " whatsoever things were written aforetime 
 were written for our learning, that we through 
 patience and comfort of the Scriptures might 
 have Hope." And so we are now glorying " in 
 Hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 17 
 
 lie, promised before times eternal." ' The God 
 of Hope has filled us with all joy and peace in 
 believing, so that we now abound in Hope, 
 through the power of the Holy Ghost.' 
 
 It is blessed to trust in God and to have a 
 Hope in His sure mercy. As the prophet Jere- 
 miah well has said : "Blessed is the man that 
 trusteth in the Lord, and whose Hope the Lord 
 is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the 
 waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the 
 river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but 
 her leaf shall be green." As also has the psalm- 
 ist said : " Happy is he that hath the God of 
 Jacob for his help, whose Hope is in the Lord 
 his God." "Happy indeed is that people that 
 is in such a case ; yea, happy is that people, 
 whose God is the Lord." For " behold, the eye 
 of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon 
 them that hope in His mercy ; to deliver their 
 soul from death, and to keep them alive in fam- 
 ine." " The Lord taketh pleasure in them that 
 fear Him, in those that hope in his mercy." 
 
 The patriarchs, the prophets, the apostles, had 
 such a Hope ; and, amid earthly trials, amid 
 affliction and persecution, in the lion's den, at the 
 fiery stake, on the painful cross, it still buoyed 
 them up and gave them courage and fortitude. 
 It kept them while here ; it will be consummated 
 at the proper time. 
 
18 THE CROWXIXG HOPE. 
 
 How glad is that heart that has Jesus for its 
 friend. How happy is that life which is filled 
 with the joy that comes with the " Hope of the 
 gospel." How blest is that soul who, amid the 
 changing scenes and trying circumstances of a 
 tempted and troubled existence, has learned to 
 "lean upon its God." In what a fortunate posi- 
 tion are they who have found by experience that 
 it is sweet to drop their woes, their worries, their 
 burdens ; and to " cast all their care upon Him, 
 for He careth for them." 
 
 The blessed religion of the dear Son of God, 
 when it is felt in the heart and lived in the life, 
 is an overflowing fountain from which pours a 
 full measure of true peace. It is, even now, a 
 source of many comforts and true joys. Amid 
 the conflicts of life it gives a restful spirit, and a 
 feeling of calm content that can be supplied by 
 nothing else. 
 
 But not only is it a religion of peace and rest 
 and holy joy. It is pre-eminently a hopeful 
 religion, the religion of true Hope, Not only 
 does it benefit in the present, but it gives bright 
 prospects of future good. It gives something to 
 which we can joyfully look forward. And, oft- 
 times, it is in the contemplation of future bliss 
 that the true Christian finds his greatest pleasure. 
 As he ponders upon the "good times coming" 
 he is filled with emotions of most ecstatic joy. 
 
THE CROWXING HOPE. 19 
 
 His meditations of the glories of future time 
 often enrapture his heart, and fill his very being 
 with thrills of heavenly delight. His visions of 
 future happiness oft are the means of dispelling 
 from his otherwise saddened heart, the rough 
 realities of his present lot in life. He is cheered 
 by the divine rays of the gospel Hope. He is 
 saved by Hope. But hope that is seen is not 
 hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet 
 hope for? But if he hopes for that he sees not, 
 then does he with patience wait for it. And in 
 patient waiting he is supremely blest. As saith 
 Jeremiah : " The Lord is my portion, saith my 
 soul; therefore will I hope in Him. The Lord 
 is good unto those who wait for Him, to the soul 
 that seeketh Him. It is good that a man should 
 both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of 
 the Lord." Hope fills his heart, and inspires his 
 life. Hope drives away his clouds, and brings 
 into his life the sunshine of heaven. Hope keeps 
 away despair and morbid melancholy, and bids 
 cheerfulness and gladness be his. And, though 
 his life may be beset on every hand by those 
 contaminating influences which would tend to 
 draw him away from the object of his Hope, 
 yet he knows with the apostle James that 
 u Blessed is the man that endureth temptation : 
 for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of 
 life, which the Lord hath promised to them that 
 
20 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 love Him." And he knows that the words of 
 Peter are true when he said : " The trial of 
 your faith, being much more precious than of 
 gold that perisheth, though it be tried with lire, 
 might be found unto praise and honor and glory 
 at the appearing of Jesus Christ ; whom having 
 not seen, ye love ; in whom though now ye see 
 Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy un- 
 speakable and full of glory" It is Hope that 
 fills his heart with " joy unspeakable." It is 
 Hope that makes his righteous soul to be " full 
 of glory." It is Hope that bids him rise above 
 the dank atmosphere of mortal existence, to soar 
 above the obscuring clouds that would hang so 
 darkly over him; and then, while bathing his 
 enraptured soul in the resplendence of heaven's 
 pure sunlight, to gaze beyond intervening time 
 and obstacles, and feast his mind upon the eter- 
 nal blessedness and joys that are to be. 
 
 11 O, glorious Hope of perfect love ! 
 
 It lifts me up to things above ; 
 
 It bears on eagle's wings ; 
 
 It gives my ravished soul a taste, 
 
 And makes me for some moments, feast 
 
 With Jesus, priests and kings.' 1 
 
 When the true Christian engages in " the soul 
 ravishing exercise of heavenly contemplation," 
 how the comforts of God delight his heart. 
 While he looks " not at the things which are 
 seen, but at the things which are not seen," how 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 21 
 
 his whole being is stirred by feelings of holy rap- 
 ture. As he looks forward by faith to the blest 
 objects of his Hope, how his heart is cheered 
 and his glory rejoices. He gazes, and his faith 
 is strengthened. He gazes, and his determina- 
 tion becomes more fixed. Such an uplifting 
 Hope is his, so bright, so enlivening, so eternal, 
 that he feels he cannot miss its consummation. 
 When the time of harvest comes he must be there 
 to share its full fruition. And so say we all. 
 " There is none on earth live such a life of joy 
 and blessedness, as those that are acquainted 
 with this heavenly conversation. The joys of all 
 other men are but as child's play, a fool's laugh- 
 ter, or a sick man's dream of health. He that 
 trades for heaven is the only gainer, and he that 
 neglects it is the only loser." 
 
 He who lives the whole of his lifetime in the 
 service of sin and Satan, and who at last sinks 
 into a hopeless grave, has indeed wasted his 
 precious privileges of salvation, and lived his 
 life for naught. It may well be said of him as it 
 was of the unhappy Judas, " good were it for 
 that man if he had never been born." He has 
 satisfied himself with the lower, ignobler things 
 of life ; and, as a result, shall at last " utterly 
 perish in his own corruption." But he, who, 
 dissatisfied with the evils of the world and with 
 the emptiness of the things of the present, does 
 
22 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 set his Hope on God, and looks to the glowing 
 future for a perfection of life and a completion of 
 happiness, is truly blest now, and shall be eter- 
 nally blest in the ages that are to come. To be 
 enlightened by Hope, enlivened by Hope, and 
 uplifted by Hope ; to be thrilled with Hope and 
 filled with Hope ; to be fired by Hope and in- 
 spired by Hope ; is a condition supremely blest. 
 And it can be the condition of each one of us. 
 We may say with the poet that 
 
 Hope's " blissful omens bid my spirit see 
 The boundless fields of rapture yet to be.'' 
 
 F. W. Farrar, discussing the iQ Theology of 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews," said: "Hope is nec- 
 essary, because the state in which we live is but 
 a shadow of the state in which we shall be. In 
 this view we can only realize the future by the 
 exultant anticipation and inward evidence, 
 Hope is not fruition. Here the ship still tosses 
 on the turbid waves, but yet it is held by a sure 
 and steadfast anchor, of which the golden chain 
 passes out of our sight in that aerial ocean 
 beyond the veil; — and the unseen links of that 
 chain are held by the hand of Christ, w T ho has 
 gone before us there." 
 
 11 How cheering is the Christian's Hope 
 While toiling here below ! 
 It buoys us up while passing through 
 This wilderness of woe." 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 23 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Crowning Hope. 
 
 11 A cheerful expecter of the best hath a fountain of joy 
 
 within him ; 
 Yea though the breath of disappointment should chill 
 
 the sanguine heart, 
 Speedily gloweth it again, warmed by the live embers 
 
 of Hope.'" — Tupper's Proverbial Philosophy. 
 
 If we are creatures of Hope, and are animated 
 with Hope, then there must be an object for 
 which we hope. We cannot hope unless our 
 affections are centred upon some desirable 
 object. Hope is "expectation of good; desire 
 joined with belief." It is also " the thing hoped 
 for; object of Hope." 
 
 If we are not looking beyond this " present 
 evil world " then we have no more than a per- 
 ishing earthly Hope. He who has no Hope in 
 the mercy of God has no expectation of good 
 beyond the vanishing things of this life. It is 
 said that " while there is life there is Hope." But 
 death comes, and Hope is gone. For "when a 
 wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish : 
 and the Hope of the unjust man perisheth." 
 "The eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they 
 shall not escape ; their Hope shall be as a puff of 
 
24 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 wind," " So are the paths of all that forget 
 God ; and the hypocrite's Hope shall perish : 
 whose Hope shall be cut off, and whose trust 
 shall be a spider's web." 
 
 But with the righteous man it is not so. He 
 is divinely blest ; blest with an unfailing Hope. 
 " The Hope of the righteous shall be gladness." 
 And if he is made glad with Hope, and is " saved 
 by Hope," and is " rejoicing in Hope," there 
 must be an object upon which his Hope is set. 
 There must be that for which he is hoping. 
 " For we, through the Spirit, wait for the Hope 
 of righteousness by faith." Now, if " Faith is 
 the substance of things hoped for, the evidence 
 of things not seen," then we think that Hope is 
 the desire for those things, and the expectation 
 of them. Hope, with the Christian, is the ex- 
 pectant desire of future good; a desirous expec- 
 tation of that which is worthy and lofty ; a 
 happy anticipation of blessings that are promised. 
 He not only has " promise of the life that now 
 is," but of that also " which is to come." 
 
 Paul teaches that " if in this life only we have 
 Hope in Christ, we are of all men most miser- 
 able." "But," says Wesley 6i if we have a Divine 
 evidence of things not seen, if we have a Hope 
 full of immortality, if we now taste the powers 
 of the world to come, and see the crown that 
 fadeth not away; then, notwithstanding our 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 25 
 
 present trials, we are more happy than all men." 
 If we are going to be Christians, we should 
 be Bible Christians. Our faith and Hope should 
 be in God, and in His word of promise. As 
 Paul has it "your faith should not stand in the 
 wisdom of men, but in the power of God." We 
 should not have our trust in the vain philosophies 
 of men, nor should we rest our Hope on their 
 theories. We must go to the word of God, and, 
 reverently turning its pages, find out what is 
 there held forth to us as the object of Hope. 
 We should find what the Bible places before us 
 as the great object of Christian Hope. What 
 are the promises of God? What is the teaching 
 of His word? What, that has been revealed, 
 can we look forward to with glowing confidence ? 
 And I sincerely trust that the " Father of glory 
 may give unto us the spirit of wisdom and reve- 
 lation in the knowledge of Him; the eyes of 
 our understanding being enlightened, that we 
 may know what is the Hope of His calling" 
 
 We know that " eye hath not seen, nor ear 
 heard .... the things which God hath pre- 
 pared for them that love Him." But we know, 
 also, that He " hath revealed them unto us by 
 His Spirit" And if God, by His Spirit and in 
 His Word, has revealed to us certain things, it 
 is our privilege to find out what they are. So we 
 should seek to know what is the true Bible Hope. 
 
26 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 And, having once found it,' we should be sure 
 to " hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of 
 the Hope firm unto the end." We should not 
 allow ourselves to be "moved away from the 
 Hope of the gospel which we have heard ;" but, 
 if need be, we should cry out with David, "Up- 
 hold me according unto thy word, that I may 
 live : and let me not be ashamed of my Hope." 
 And, surely, if we get the true Hope, the one 
 that God has given, it is a Hope that " maketh 
 not ashamed ;" it will not be as rottenness to our 
 bones, but will be the strength of our life and 
 the gladness of our heart. 
 
 We insist that men should have a Scriptural 
 Hope, that they should have a Bible basis for 
 what they believe and expect ; because we know 
 there are in the world many false Hopes. Many 
 Christians have a Hope that is not biblical. 
 While we do not doubt the sincerity of their 
 hearts, we do doubt if they be ready always, 
 with meekness and fear, to give a Bible answer to 
 every man that asketh them a reason of the 
 Hope that is in them. And if they have no 
 Bible reasons for their Hope, it is evident that it 
 is not a Bible Hope. 
 
 The church should have for her Hope, not that 
 which the false philosophy of men has given to 
 her, but that which God has set forth in His rev- 
 elation. We should be "built upon the founda- 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 27 
 
 tion of the apostles and prophets." We should 
 have, and " earnestly contend for, the faith 
 which was once delivered unto the saints." We 
 should not allow ourselves to be contented with 
 a Hope that is false, no matter how pleasing it 
 may appear to be. We should be satisfied 
 with nothing less than the true Hope. And if 
 so be we have a false one, it would be a profit- 
 able bargain for us to exchange it for the true. 
 
 But what is the true Hope, the one only Hope, 
 of those who are trusting in Jesus for salvation ? 
 
 There is one event yet future for which we 
 long. It is to be the grandest event of all the 
 world's history. It is the centre of the Hope of 
 God's true people. It was gladly predicted by 
 the prophets ; it was joyously sung by the psalm- 
 ist ; and by the apostles its transcendent glories 
 were proclaimed. 
 
 It is something for which many have been 
 eagerly looking. They have, as it were, strained 
 their eyes to catch the first glimmerings of its 
 advancing glory. Their souls have waited for 
 it more than they who watch for the morning. 
 It is that for which many weary and heavy laden 
 ones have longingly watched. Oppressed and 
 afflicted ones have, with glistening eyes, long 
 been noting each welcome harbinger that does 
 herald its approach. In view of it, songs triumph- 
 ant have often raised their gladsome strains on 
 
28 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 high, and their thrilling words of glad tidings 
 of good things to come have cheered many a 
 desponding heart. That it might be hastened 
 many a fervent prayer has, on the pinions of 
 faith, winged its way to the throne of God. It is 
 sure to come, for God has promised it. It will 
 arrive on time, for the Saviour himself told his 
 eager disciples of it. 
 
 It is the brightest Hope, the grandest Hope, 
 the Hope of Hopes. It shines, it glows, it burns. 
 In characters of living light it is written. It 
 lifts itself far above all the other Hopes of earth. 
 As the crown rests upon the brow of the king, 
 so does this Hope crown all the holy aspirations 
 of men. It is the fitting climax of all, the grand 
 culmination of all the blest promises of God, the 
 glorious and Crowning Hope of the gospel of the 
 Son of God. It is spoken of in the Bible as the 
 " Blessed Hope." 
 
 What is this great event of which we speak ? 
 It is the second advent of Christ, the coming 
 again to this earth of the matchless Son of God. 
 As one has said, "the realization of all our 
 brightest Hopes is connected with this event. 
 The consummation of all coming glory culmi- 
 nates in his coming back again. . . . This word 
 in the formula of the Lord's supper, ' till He 
 come ' is the key-word of Scripture. It gives us 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 29 
 
 the great Hope of the church, in which other 
 hopes centre and culminate." 
 
 E. A. Stockman writes: "The whole vast 
 wealth of Xew Testament doctrine centres in the 
 1 coming of the Lord.' Every sentiment of the 
 gospel draws its beauty and power, largely, from 
 the second appearing. , The personal return of 
 the Christ is the key to immortality and glory. 
 The revelation of the Son of God from heaven is 
 the high-arched golden gateway to the kingdom 
 universal and everlasting. Misconception of the 
 doctrine of the second advent of Christ is likely 
 to lead to false views of the entire redemptive 
 economy. This doctrine stands at the threshold 
 of true prophetical interpretation and New Testa- 
 ment exegesis." 
 
 Said D. T. Taylor: " There is but one Hope, 
 namely, His appearing." And again, "there is 
 but one panacea for all of earth's ills, it is the re- 
 turn of her King." George Muller at one time 
 said : " I have for forty-seven years been aim- 
 ing at the conversion of sinners, and have sought 
 to awake the church of Christ at large to look 
 for His appearing as her great HopeP Said C. 
 H. Spurgeon : " It strikes the thoughtful obser- 
 ver that the coming of the Lord Jesus is far 
 more the Hope of the church than any remedial 
 processes, or evolutions, or progresses among 
 mankind." Said M. R. Pheteplace : " He comes 
 
30 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 to execute judgment in equity, and rule the 
 world in righteousness. He comes to banish 
 sorrow from the heart, and forever wipe afflic- 
 tion's tear from the eye. He comes to bury sin 
 forever beneath the vengeance of His ire. ' Then 
 they that be wise shall shine as the brightness 
 of the firmament; and they that turn many to 
 righteousness as the stars forever and ever'. Such 
 a coming of such a conqueror, to bring such re- 
 sults, is the desire of nations and the Hope of 
 earth." Alexander Maclaren said, that " His 
 coming must be for loving hearts as the morning 
 spread upon the mountains. The Hope is blessed 
 when the heart loves Him who is to come." 
 Richard Boxter wrote: "The thoughts of the 
 coming of the Lord are most sweet and joyful to 
 me, so that if I were but sure that I should live 
 to see it, and that the trumpet should sound, 
 and the dead should rise, and the Lord appear, 
 before the period of my age, it would be the 
 joy fullest tidings to me in the world. It is the 
 character of His saints to love His appearing, and 
 to look for that blessed Hope?' During a dis- 
 course upon " The Comforting Hope," the second 
 coming of Christ, Fred. W. Jansz said : " To 
 you, my hearers, I would ask to give a sketch of 
 the subject in your imagination, and view the 
 subject in a fair and Christ-like spirit, doing 
 away with all prejudice, treating the subject with 
 
THE CRO)VNING HOPE. 31 
 
 all logical fairness in Scriptural authorities, I by 
 God's help doing my best in upholding this Hope 
 as our only Hope and refuge, believing the 
 appearing of our Lord and Saviour to be a fact 
 and a reality, glorying in that Christ's personal 
 reign on this earth renewed will be soon." 
 
 Said John A. Cargile, of Alabama, " What is 
 the grand Hope of the Gospel ? I answer, the 
 second coming of our blessed Lord and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ. His coming to the earth again is 
 the only Hope set before us in the Bible." 
 
 1 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in 
 one Hope of your calling.'' — Eph. 4: 4. 
 
 1 For what is our Hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not 
 even ye in the presence or our Lord Jesus Christ at his comingV 
 1 Thess. 2 : 19. 
 
 " His coming was the Hope of the apostles and 
 the early church. They expected him to ' come 
 to be glorified in his saints.' (2 Thess. 1 : 9, 10.) 
 They turned to God from idols i to wait for 
 His Son from Heaven.' (1 Thess. 1 : 9, 10.) 
 They are taught to ' live soberly, righteously 
 and godly, in this present world, looking 
 for that blessed Hope, and the glorious ap- 
 pearing of the great God and our Saviour 
 Jesus Christ.' (Tit. 2 : 11-13.) In our day, 
 however, there are many who reject the doctrine 
 of the personal advent, or who fail to see any 
 necessity for it." 
 
32 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 " Oh, the Crowning Day is coming, 
 
 Is coming by and by, 
 AVhen our Lord shall come in power, 
 
 And glory from on high. 
 Oh, the glorious sight will gladden, 
 
 Each waiting, watchful eye, 
 In the Crowning Day that's coming 
 
 By and by." 
 
 The early church held aloft the glad truth of 
 the coming of the Lord. It was a doctrine dear 
 to them. They loved it, because they loved Him 
 who was to come. Their affection for Him was 
 so great that they longed to see Him and to be 
 with Him. He was enthroned in their hearts. 
 He held the highest seat in their lives. He was 
 the first one in their affections. And if they 
 loved Him more than they loved any other per- 
 son, it was but natural for them to desire His 
 holy presence. If He were dearer to them than 
 were all others what would be more natural than 
 that, as He had promised to return, they should 
 look forward with real pleasure to the time of 
 that event? 
 
 Speaking of the early church, J. F. Hurst, 
 D. D. said: " The church loved to think of a 
 peaceful and happy future. The early coming 
 of Christ was expected by many of the laity, 
 while some of the more serious teachers and 
 scholars thought they saw in the New Testa- 
 ment abundant warrant for the early introduc- 
 tion of the millennium." 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 33 
 
 The prophets had spoken of both His first and 
 second advents. He had come the first time as 
 had been predicted. The eyes of the disciples 
 had seen Him, their hands had handled Him. 
 They had rejoiced in His sweet and sacred 
 society ; their ready ears had listened to the 
 gracious utterances that had fallen from His 
 loving lips. But now He was gone. They 
 grieved at His absence. They yearned to know 
 once again that presence which had been to 
 them so beneficial and so blessed. And if, in 
 fulfilment of the prophetic teachings, He had 
 been among them once, why should they not 
 have faith in the prophecies which taught that 
 He should come again ? They were not mis- 
 taken. They could not be. The time certainly 
 would come when their eyes should see the King, 
 not in His humility, but in His regal beauty. 
 
 And then, had not His own lips said that at 
 some future time He would come in the clouds 
 of heaven with power and great glory? Had 
 He not commanded them to " Watch," for they 
 knew not the hour when the Son of man should 
 appear ? And, even though He should tarry 
 long beyond the time of their expectations, 
 should they not obey His instructions and be on 
 the lookout for Him? And if, while watching 
 for Him to return, they should fall asleep in 
 death, they could do so knowing that "them also 
 
34 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 that sleep in Jesus will. God bring with Him. 
 For this we say unto you by the word of the 
 Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto 
 the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them 
 which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall 
 descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice 
 of the archangel, and with the trump of God ; 
 and the dead in Christ shall rise first.'' 
 
 And did they make a mistake in loving His 
 appearing, in preaching His second advent, in 
 listening " for the coming of His feet ?" We 
 think not. In doing so they were but obeying 
 His injunctions; and to obey Him is always 
 right. Said Dr. Lyman Abbott : " Paul looked 
 and waited for the coming of the Lord. Peter 
 warned his readers not to be deceived by scoffers 
 asking, 'Where is the promise of His coming?' 
 John bade the children of God purify themselves 
 by the Hope that when He shall appear His 
 children shall be like Him. James exhorted the 
 disheartened and discouraged to be patient unto 
 the coming of the Lord." And further on he 
 says : " If the early disciples erred by thinking it 
 must come in their own time, we are in danger 
 of erring by thinking that it cannot come in our 
 time. They anticipated ; we procrastinate." 
 
 And then again, it was at the coming of Jesus 
 that they expected to receive their reward. Had 
 He not said, " For the Son of man shall come in 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 35 
 
 the glory of His Father with His angels ; and 
 then He shall reward every man according to 
 his works ?" Had He not said, " Behold, I come 
 quickly ; and my reward is with me, to give 
 every man according as his work shall be ?" He 
 had most surely said, " When the Son of man 
 shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels 
 with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of 
 His glory ;" and, after separating the righteous 
 from the wicked, "then shall the King say unto 
 them on His right hand, come, ye blessed of my 
 Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you 
 from the foundation of the world." And so they 
 knew they would not be rewarded until His 
 second advent. They could not enter into that 
 happy kingdom until the Nobleman who had 
 gone into a far country, should return. They 
 knew they were to be " recompensed at the res- 
 urrection of the just;" but this event takes not 
 place until the return of Him who is the " Res- 
 urrection and the Life." They knew nothing of 
 any reward to be given before the day of judg- 
 ment. They knew of no short cut into glory. 
 They knew that where He had gone they could 
 not go. For He had said unto them : " Little 
 children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye 
 shall seek me; and as I said unto the Jews, 
 whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to 
 you." But they knew, also, that He was to come 
 
36 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 again to receive them unto himself. In this their 
 Hope was centred. In expectation of that blest 
 event they rejoiced, and in glad anticipation of 
 it they waited. 
 
 They did not look for their reward at the 
 time of death. They had no thought of going to 
 heaven when they died, and of becoming par- 
 takers of the saint's felicity at the event of death. 
 The did not sing, " death is the gate to endless 
 joy." Paul did not expect his crown when he 
 died. He said : " Henceforth (from this time 
 forward) there is laid up for me a crown of 
 righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous 
 Judge shall give me at that day : and not to me 
 only, but unto all them also that love His appear- 
 ing" And Peter teaches that it is " when the 
 chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a 
 crown of glory that fadeth not away." 
 
 In an address delivered before the Alumni of 
 the Newton Theological Seminary, Dr. A. J. 
 Gordon, that able and popular preacher of Bos- 
 ton, said : " By a ghastly anachronism, death has 
 been largely substituted for the coming of Christ, 
 in the common teaching ; and thus a false centre 
 has been set up in our eschatology, by which the 
 doctrines pertaining to the last things have been 
 thrown into eccentric relation. Ask the question, 
 1 When does sanctifl cation end?' and the common 
 answer is, 'At death.' Ask the question, 
 
THE CBOWNING HOPE. 37 
 
 i When do the rewards of the righteous accrue?' 
 and still the answer generally comes, from evan- 
 gelical theology, ' At death/ Ask the question, 
 ' When does the resurrection take place ?' and 
 the answer comes from Liberals and New De- 
 parturists, and from a considerable company of 
 the orthodox, ' At death.' ... To us it seems 
 incontestably clear that the Bible makes the 
 advent, and not the grave, the supreme goal of 
 the Church's Hope. And lest you should accuse 
 me of speaking presumptuously, I wish you 
 would search the Bible for yourselves, and note 
 how constantly the soul's progress toward per- 
 fection is inspired and bounded by that one 
 divine event, the coming of our Lord. You can 
 collate scores of texts to this effect, all finding a 
 fitting climax and summary in that grand utter- 
 ance of Paul as it stands in the revised version, 
 4 And may your spirit and soul and body be pre- 
 served entire, without blame, at the coming of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ.' The same may be said 
 of the divine rewards. The promise of them is, 
 almost without exception, timed by this great 
 event." 
 
 We quote also from another. " It is wrong to 
 say of the pious dead, they have gone to glory. 
 
 There is not a word for it in the Bible 
 
 Not in dying, not while dead and the spirit rent 
 from the body, not in hades, not at any period 
 
38 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 prior to the return of Jesus and the resurrection 
 era, is the saved flock crowned with glory. To 
 say that the redeemed are crowned in death con- 
 founds victory with defeat, glory with gloom, 
 and translation with hell ; while it makes death 
 a partner with the Prince of life. But the pious 
 dead are to be crowned with the triple crown of 
 life, righteousness and glory at His coming ; 
 therefore they are not crowned at death. Our 
 noble founders did well in conference at Albany 
 in 1845, when they unanimously resolved that the 
 departed saints do not receive their crowns at 
 death. It is, therefore, a christian doctrine and 
 worthy to be received by all, that the whole 
 body of saints are to enter the cloud in the 
 divine presence, and that the true time of this 
 glorification is the coming of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ." 
 
 " The glory and chief Hope of the church are 
 not to be realized at death, but at the Lord's com- 
 ing ; one is not to anticipate the other, but all are 
 to be glorified together at Christ's coming. The 
 Spirit designed that believers in each successive 
 age should live in continued expectation of the 
 Lord's coming, not knowing but that they should 
 be among those found alive at His coming. It 
 is a sad fall from this blessed Hope, that death 
 is looked for by most men, rather than the com- 
 ing of the Lord." J. F. & I?s. Commentary. 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 39 
 
 Said H. W. Bowman : " The time for enter- 
 ing the kingdom is ichen Christ comes in His 
 glory. Then shall He say, ' come ye blessed of 
 my Father, inherit the kingdom.' Not when the 
 the saint dies, but when He comes ; not as dis- 
 embodied souls, but as resurrected and translated 
 men and women. Not till Christ comes in His 
 glory are we to enter into glory, wear a crown, 
 or inherit the kingdom. Hence to talk of enter- 
 ing the kingdom at death is to subvert the re- 
 vealed plan of salvation." 
 
 This is the reason why the return of Christ is 
 of such vast importance. All the true hopes of 
 the Church cluster around it. The Church will 
 not enter upon her long promised rest until the 
 coming of her Lord. The Bride who is to be 
 presented as a " chaste virgin unto Christ," will 
 surely not be at the nuptials until the " marriage 
 of the Lamb is come." And this will not be 
 until " the Bridegroom cometh." 
 
 The felicitous condition of the saints, their 
 final glorification in the kingdom of God, the 
 rapturous existence to which they ever have 
 looked desirously forward, will not be theirs to 
 enjoy until when " Christ, who is our life, shall 
 appear :" but when He does appear, " then shall 
 ye also appear with Him in glory." 
 
 No wonder, then, that with earnest longings 
 the true Church should look forward to the time 
 
40 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 of the " marriage of the Lamb." No wonder 
 that, with unsuppressed emotions, she should 
 hope for Him to come. No wonder that her 
 heart should bound anew, that her cheek should 
 take on a fresh glow, and her eyes sparkle with 
 a new lustre, as she stands upon the threshold 
 looking eagerly for the coming of Him whom her 
 soul loveth. And as " signs of the times " tell 
 of His close proximity, and her inspired ear 
 catches sounds unheard by others, is it anything 
 surprising that she exultingly exclaims, " The 
 voice of my Beloved ! behold He cometh, leaping 
 upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills?" 
 " The one great Hope for the whole creation 
 towards which, blindly and unconsciously, if not 
 with intelligent desire, all are reaching forward 
 is the " marriage of the Lamb." It is the Hope 
 of the Bride who shall then be one with the Lord 
 in all His glory, and power, and fullness of bless- 
 ing. It is the Hope of the nations, who shall 
 then know the blessedness of righteous rule. 
 It is the Hope of the sore-burthened earth, which 
 longs to be delivered from the bondage of cor- 
 ruption, into the glorious liberty of the sons of 
 God. And it is the Hope of the Lord himself, 
 whose heart yearns over His church, purchased 
 with His own blood, but still lying in the deso- 
 lateness of death, or amidst the defilements of 
 this evil world, and whose word of promise is 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 41 
 
 ( Surely 1 come quickly.' Let our response ever 
 be, c Even so, come Lord Jesus.' Let our hearts 
 be broken through our sympathy with the bur- 
 dens and sorrows of all, and let us utter in His 
 ear continually the cry that shall hasten the 
 common deliverance. " # 
 
 *Reign of Christ. 
 
42 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 the advent; its certainty, its object, and its 
 
 MANNER. 
 
 ki There is no dispute about the fact of our Lord's Second 
 Advent."— D. D. Buck, D. D. 
 
 • What a thought it is that this commonplace 
 old earth of ours was at one time visited by a 
 Being from another world. Jules Verne's im- 
 aginative conception of a " Voyage from the earth 
 to the moon" is not half so strange and startling 
 as this. It is unique. It is more than unique. 
 It is wonderful and soul-stirring. And yet such 
 is the fact. From the celestial world of light 
 and glory, One, in times past, did deign to come, 
 and press this sin-cursed planet with His holy feet. 
 Such a one was Jesus. He said, " I came down 
 from heaven." We believe His word. But He 
 is not here now. He has long since gone away 
 again to the glory which He had with the Father 
 before the world was. He has again been "re- 
 ceived up into heaven." 
 
 If He was here once, it is not impossible that 
 He should be here again. He not only said, "I 
 came down from heaven," but, before He left 
 the earth, He said also, "I will come again." 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 43 
 
 He came the first time to " seek and to save that 
 which was lost." He is coming the second time 
 to receive the saved ones unto himself, that, 
 where He is, there may also His servants be. 
 Then, His reward will be with Him, to give to 
 every man according as his work shall be. Then 
 shall the redeemed ones receive a " crown of 
 glory, that fadeth not away." Then it is, if 
 faithful, we shall enter into our long looked-for 
 rest. We shall then inherit the kingdom pre- 
 pared for us, and shall enter upon the joy of our 
 Lord. 
 
 And so, for a little while, we would consider 
 the certainty of this event. Is Jesus really com- 
 ing to the earth once more ? Will He who was 
 here before ever be here again ? Will God's Son 
 set His holy feet upon our earth at some time in 
 the future ? Will that blest Being from the upper 
 regions of glory, condescend to come again to 
 this lower world, or is such a thought merely the 
 conception of an overexcited imagination ? Is 
 the second coming of Christ a revealed truth, 
 or is it simply a vagary of fanatical minds ? 
 
 Truly these are important questions. We 
 dare not answer them wrongfully. And so we 
 claim that Jesus is to come again. This doctrine 
 is not an invention of man, but is a revelation of 
 God. It is a prominent truth of the Holy Bible. 
 It is the grandest and most momentous of all the 
 
44 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 great things which are therein contained. If God 
 has said it, then it will be done. If He has re- 
 vealed it, it will surely come to pass. There is 
 no uncertainty about it. It is settled in heaven, 
 and will be fulfilled on earth. Said G. C. Lori- 
 mer, D. D. : "Now, it must impress us that the 
 career of Jesus demands something more than a 
 resurrection from the dead and an ascension into 
 heaven. We are not satisfied with the climax. 
 As far as it goes it is well enough ; but it does 
 not go far enough. If this is all, if the ages are 
 to witness an endless repetition of what has been, 
 if the struggle between good and evil is to con- 
 tinue pretty much as in the past, only varied by 
 slight advantages on one side or the other, and 
 if there is to be no decisive and triumphant out- 
 come of the work which our Lord inaugurated, 
 then there is an incompleteness about it which is 
 hardly reconcilable with any fair idea of its 
 divine origin. It w T ill not do to say that Chris- 
 tianity is a flower whose roots are in the earth 
 and its blossoms in heaven ; that the beginnings 
 are beneath and its consummations above ; for 
 we feel that what has been commenced here 
 should be perfected here. If Christ brought sal- 
 vation to this world, then in this world it ought 
 to be fully accomplished; all of its blessings, 
 fruits, and achievements should be witnessed in 
 the very domain where they were first projected. 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 45 
 
 This feeling the Scriptures abundantly justify. 
 They foretell the time when Jesus shall return 
 and finish the salvation which He began in tears 
 and blood, when He shall restore all things, when 
 the works of the devil shall be destroyed, and 
 when the drama of redemption shall find a fitting 
 close in glory everlasting." 
 
 This is the utterance of an able pulpit of the 
 present times. But is this a modern doctrine 
 merely, or was it the faith of earlier Christians ? 
 Let the following answer. 
 
 Says a writer in the Encyclopaedia Britannica : 
 " In the history of Christianity three main forces 
 are found to have acted as auxiliaries of the 
 gospel." When he enumerates these forces, the 
 first is found to be " a belief in the speedy re- 
 turn of Christ and in His glorious reign on 
 earth." And further on he says : " First in point 
 of time came the faith in the nearness of Christ's 
 second advent and the establishing of His reign 
 of glory on the earth. Indeed it appears so early 
 that it might be questioned whether it ought not 
 to be regarded as an essential part of the Chris- 
 tian religion. ... It must be admitted that this 
 expectation was a prominent feature in the 
 earliest proclamation of the gospel, and materi- 
 ally contributed to its success." 
 
 From J. S. C. Abbott we quote : "It will be 
 remembered that, when Jesus took His final de- 
 
46 THE CB OWNING HOPE. 
 
 parture from His disciples, ascending into the 
 skies in bodily presence before them from Mount 
 Olivet, two angels appeared to them, and said, 
 c Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into 
 heaven ? This same Jesus, which is taken up 
 from you into heaven, shall so come in like man- 
 ner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.' 
 
 11 The second coming of Christ, to reap the 
 fruits of His humiliation and His atoning sacri- 
 fice in the establishment of His spiritual king- 
 dom, was a prominent theme in the teaching 
 both of Christ and His apostles." He then 
 quotes from Peter on this subject, and speaks of 
 Peter's words as " emphatic announcements that 
 the Lord Jesus, who had risen from the grave 
 and ascended to heaven, would come again in 
 glory with an angelic retinue to establish an 
 everlasting kingdom." 
 
 But it is principally to the Bible that we in- 
 tend to go in order to find out as to the certainty 
 of the advent of our beloved King. What a 
 wonderful book is the Bible ! It is a wonderful 
 book because it is the word of a wonderful God. 
 It contains His revealed will to men, and the 
 great plan devised for their salvation. God is a 
 God of truth. Consequently His word is a word 
 of truth. The Bible is His word ; therefore, it 
 is true. " The Scriptures cannot be broken." 
 They are immutable as their divine Author. 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 47 
 
 Nothing then, can prevent their ultimate fulfill- 
 ment. The things there predicted will, at the 
 proper time, have their consummation. All the 
 efforts of wicked men will not be able to over- 
 throw the truth of God. All the powers of hell 
 cannot prevent its fulfillment. 
 
 The doctrine of the second advent of the divine 
 Son of God, His coming to the earth the second 
 time, is a doctrine of the Bible. It is a special 
 and prominent doctrine. The event has not yet 
 taken place. It must, therefore, be one of 
 those truths of God whose fulfillment is still 
 future. But so sure as the Bible teaches it, it 
 will yet take place. Nothing can prevent its 
 occurrence. Our disbelief of it will not hinder it. 
 Our opposition to it will not be the means of 
 staying its onward progress. Our fear of it will 
 not keep it from coming. It is predicted in the 
 word of God. It will come, then, with all its 
 pomp, its power, its glory, its majesty, its sub- 
 lime awfulness. 
 
 This is a very old doctrine. When we turn to 
 the Bible we find it, not only in the New Testa- 
 ment, but also in the Old Testament. We be- 
 lieve it was to this event that Job referred when 
 he said : " I know that my Redeemer liveth, and 
 that He shall stand at the latter day upon the 
 earth." (Job 19 : 25.) It is certain that the 
 Redeemer was not standing upon the earth at 
 
48 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 the time when this language was uttered. And 
 if He was not standing on the earth at that time, 
 but was to do so at the " latter day," surely He 
 must come from heaven in order to do it. This 
 could not refer to the time when our Saviour 
 came to earth for the first time, because Job im- 
 mediately connects his thoughts with his own re- 
 surrection and with his own personal view of the 
 Redeemer when he says : " And though after 
 my skin-worms destroy this body, yet in my 
 flesh shall I see God ; whom I shall see for my- 
 self, and my eyes shall behold, and not another." 
 Therefore we must conclude that reference is 
 here made to that time when " The Lord him- 
 self shall descend from heaven with a shout, 
 with the voice of the archangel, and with the 
 trump of God ; and the dead in Christ shall rise." 
 Reference is evidently made to that time when 
 Michael shall stand up, and when " many of them 
 that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake." 
 It is manifestly of the second coming of Christ 
 that the psalmist speaks when he says : " Our 
 God shall come, and shall not keep silence; a fire 
 shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tem- 
 pestuous round about Him. He shall call to the 
 heavens from above, and to the earth, that He 
 may judge His people. Gather my saints to- 
 gether unto me ; those that have made a cove- 
 nant with me by sacrifice." (Ps. 50: 3-5). This can- 
 
THE CROWDING HOPE. 49 
 
 not point to the time when Jesus came before, 
 for then a fire did not devour before Him, 
 neither did He then gather His saints together, 
 nor 'judge His people.' But it is at His second 
 appearing that " the Lord Jesus shall be revealed 
 from heaven in flaming fire" it is at the second 
 " coming of our Lord Jesus Christ " that " our 
 gathering together unto Him " shall take place. 
 Consequently we conclude that the psalmist was 
 speaking of the final coming of the Judge at the 
 the great judgment day. 
 
 And again the psalmist cries out in lofty tones : 
 "Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be 
 glad, let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof. 
 Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein; 
 then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice be- 
 fore the Lord ; for He cometh, for He cometh to 
 judge the earth : He shall judge the world with 
 righteousness, and the people with His truth.'* 
 (Ps. 96 : 111-13). This alludes to the time when 
 Jesus comes at " the end of the world ;" when 
 " we must all appear before the judgment seat of 
 Christ." 
 
 Even before the flood this doctrine was pro- 
 claimed. God did not purpose that the ante- 
 diluvian world should be ignorant of the awful 
 truth that the time was to be when all mankind 
 should appear before the Lord to be judged. 
 And so we are informed that that holy man of 
 
50 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 God, " Enoch, the seventh from Adam," prophe- 
 sied of this great event. " Behold," cried he, 
 " The Lord cometh with ten thousands of His 
 saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to con- 
 vince all that are ungodly among them of all 
 their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly 
 committed, and of all their hard speeches which 
 ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." 
 {Jude 14: 15.) This is so plain it needs no 
 comment. 
 
 Isaiah speaks many times of the last glorious 
 appearing of the Messiah. We give but few 
 quotations here. "O, thou that tellest good 
 tidings to Zion, get thee up into the high mount- 
 ain ; O, thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusa- 
 lem, lift up thy voice with strength ; lift it up, 
 be not afraid ; say unto the cities of Judah, Be- 
 hold, your God ! Behold, the Lord will come as 
 a mighty one, and His arm shall rule for Him : 
 behold, His reward is with Him, and His recom- 
 pense before Him." (Is. 40 : 9, 10. R. V.) 
 We think this refers directly to the Second 
 Coming of Jesus. He is coming with rewards. 
 He did not reward at his first advent. He is to 
 -do that when He comes again. Hear His own 
 words on that point. " Behold, I come quickly; 
 and my reward is with me, to give every man 
 according as his work shall be." (Rev. 22 : 12.) 
 And again ; " For the Son of man shall come in 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 51 
 
 the glory of His Father with His angels ; and 
 then He shall reward every man according to his 
 works." (Matt. 16: 27.) 
 
 This event is spoken of in Is. 35 : 4. " Say to 
 them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear 
 not : behold, your God will come with vengeance, 
 even God with a recompense ; He will come and 
 save you." And again in Chap. 66: 15. "For, 
 behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with 
 His chariots like a whirlwind, to render His 
 anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of 
 fire." Perhaps these quotations will be sufficient 
 to show the certainty of the Second Advent as 
 taught by the Old Testament worthies. 
 
 We would now turn to the apostles ; and, from 
 their allusions to this subject, we will select a few 
 passages that are to the purpose. First from 
 Paul, whose gospel was not after man, for he 
 received it not from man, neither was he taught 
 it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. 
 So if his gospel was revealed unto him by the 
 Lord Jesus, we can place all confidence in it. 
 
 He says in Phil. 3 : 20, " Our conver- 
 sation is in heaven, from whence also we look 
 for the Saviour." It is evident that Paul and 
 those whom he had instructed would not be 
 looking for the Saviour unless they expected 
 Him ; and evidently they did not expect Him 
 
52 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 to come without having good reasons for it. It 
 had been revealed. 
 
 And again he says in Col. 3: 4, "When 
 Christ, who is our life, shall appear, than shall 
 ye also appear with him in glory." And in Heb. 
 9 : 27, 28, we read : " As it is appointed unto 
 men once to die, but after this the judgment : 
 so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of 
 many ; and unto them that look for Him shall 
 He appear the second time without sin unto sal- 
 vation." Then in chap. 10 : 36, 37, " For ye 
 have need of patience, that, after ye have done 
 the will of God, ye might receive the promise. 
 For yet a little while, and He that shall come 
 will come, and will not tarry." Here the writer 
 is so positive of the coming of the Saviour the 
 " second time " that he speaks of Him as "He 
 that shall come ;" and says of Him emphatically 
 that He "will come." And to this we agree. 
 
 Said the apostle Peter: "We have not fol- 
 lowed cunningly devised fables, when we made 
 known unto you the power and coining of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye witnesses of 
 His majesty. For He received from God the 
 Father honor and glory, when there came such a 
 voice to Him from the excellent glory, ' This is 
 my beloved Son, in whom I am well j)leased.' 
 And this voice which came from heaven we heard 
 when we were with Him in the holy mount." 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 53 
 
 The glimpse Peter had been privileged to have 
 of Jesus in His majestic transfiguration glory 
 (Mat. 17 : 1-9), had deeply impressed his heart, 
 and he knew that the transitory brightness of 
 that time but shadowed forth the eternal glory 
 that was to be revealed at the Second Advent. 
 And again, this apostle speaks of scoffers arising 
 in the last days and mockingly inquiring, 
 il Where is the promise of His coming?" But, 
 though they in their blind unbelief and willing 
 ignorance, will be able to see no signs of His ap- 
 pearing, yet Peter, a little further on, assures us 
 that " The day of the Lord will come as a thief 
 in the night ; in the which the heavens shall pass 
 away with a great noise, and the elements shall 
 melt with a fervent heat, the earth also ; and the 
 works that are therein shall be burned up." 
 
 John the beloved disciple speaks of the Ad- 
 vent of Jesus when he says : " And now, little 
 children, abide in Him ; that, when He shall ap- 
 $)ear, we may have confidence, and not be 
 ashamed before Him at His coming." And in 
 Rev. 1 : 7, he enthusiastically cries out : " Be- 
 hold, He cometh with clouds, and every eye 
 shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him ; 
 and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of 
 Him. Even so, Amen." Mr. Wesley comments 
 on this passage as follows : " He cometh — Jesus 
 Christ. Throughout this book, whenever it is 
 
54 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 said, He cometh, it means His glorious coming. 
 The preparation for this began at the destruction 
 of Jerusalem, and more particularly at the time 
 of writing this book, and goes on without any 
 interruption till that grand event is accomplished. 
 Therefore it is never said in this book, He will 
 come, but He cometh. And yet it is not said, 
 He cometh again. For when He came before, 
 it was not like himself, but in the form of a 
 servant. But His apjDearing in glory is properly 
 His coming, namely, in a manner worthy of the 
 Son of God." 
 
 And now we would come to a few of the many 
 utterances upon this subject by our Saviour him- 
 self. Let us be careful to heed the teachings of 
 Jesus. Let us not be careless regarding His 
 words. They are words of living light and of 
 eternal truth; and, though heaven and earth 
 pass away, yet His words will not pass away. 
 
 In Mat. 25 : 31, He speaks of the time "When 
 the Son of man shall come in His glory." And 
 in chap. 26 : 64, after the high priest had excit- 
 edly and angrily adjured Him to tell whether He 
 was the Christ, the Son of God, "Jesus saith un- 
 to him, Thou hast said : nevertheless I say unto 
 you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man 
 sitting on the right hand of power, and coming 
 in the clouds of heaven." And again in Luke 
 21 : 25-27, we read : " There shall be signs in the 
 
THE CB OWNING HOPE, 55 
 
 sun, and in the moon, and in the stars ; and upon 
 the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; 
 the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts 
 failing them for fear, and for looking after those 
 things which are coming on the earth, for the 
 powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then 
 shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud 
 with power and great glory." Such language is- 
 too plain to be mistaken. 
 
 Some of our Lord's parables have direct bear- 
 ing upon His return to earth. The parable of 
 the Ten Virgins (Mat. 25 : 1-13) is right to the 
 point. There, the coming of the bridegroom pos- 
 itively indicates the glorious advent from the 
 skies of the heavenly Bridegroom. The parable 
 of the Talents (Mat. 25 : 14-30) teaches lessons 
 concerning this important event. The man tak- 
 ing his journey into a far country represents the 
 Saviour going away to heaven itself. Verse 19, 
 which reads, "After a long time the Lord of 
 those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them," 
 teaches the long absence of Jesus from the earth, 
 and His final return to reckon with His servants 
 at the Judgment Day. 
 
 Then, again, the parable of the Pounds, (Luke 
 19: 11-27,) is pertinent. Jesus begins by say- 
 ing, " A certain nobleman went into a far 
 country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to 
 return. And he called his ten servants, and 
 
56 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, 
 Occupy till I come." Not only was this noble- 
 man going away, but he intended to return; 
 and, as he did not purpose to have his servants 
 idle during his absence, he gives them some- 
 thing to do, and instructs them to " occupy." 
 And while they are thus doing they are to have 
 continually in view the thought that it was not 
 his intention to remain away always, but that 
 at some future time he would again appear on 
 the scene. For the command was, " Occupy 
 till I corned D. D. Buck, D. D., speaking of 
 this parable, writes : " Our Lord undoubtedly 
 had reference, as an illustration, to the method 
 by which Herod the Great obtained the king- 
 dom of Judea. He went to Rome for the pur- 
 pose of obtaining the title and kingly authority 
 from the emperor. He received the kingdom at 
 Rome, not to exercise his kingly authority there, 
 but- to return to the country from which he 
 departed when he went to Rome, that he might 
 reign as king over the provinces chiefly inhabited 
 by the Jews, . . . Now here we have the pur- 
 pose of our Lord (assuming that He refers to 
 himself) in going to the t far country,' that is, to 
 heaven. It was to c Receive for himself a king- 
 dom, and to return/ He did not expect to find 
 the kingdom located in the ' far country,' or to 
 exercise His regal authority there. He was to 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 57 
 
 1 return ' to the locality from which He went, 
 to exercise His kingly office where His provinces 
 and His subjects were." 
 
 Truly, Jesus is to return. The Bible so 
 teaches. Its certainty is well established. There 
 is no doubt of it. May we accept this great and 
 all-important truth, and make preparations ade- 
 quate for so stupendous an event. 
 
 And next, we would pause (although we did 
 not intend to do so) to consider some of the 
 objects of Christ's return. Why is He coming 
 again ? For what purpose is He to return ? We 
 are sure He will not come in vain. Humanity 
 may do things and hardly know why they are 
 done, but not so with Divinity. When the Lord 
 does anything it is always with a definite object 
 in view. And thus it is with His second com- 
 ing. We will touch upon a few of the principal 
 objects of His return. 
 
 First, when He returns it will be to 
 
 RAISE THE DEAD. 
 
 That a resurrection of the dead is taught in 
 the Bible we all know. Death came to the 
 world because of the transgression of Adam, but 
 life comes to the world through the righteous- 
 ness of Christ. " For since by man came death, 
 by man came also the resurrection of the dead." 
 Those who have died are to be made alive. 
 
58 THE CROWNING UOPE. 
 
 Those who sleep in their graves are to be 
 awakened. Those who have fallen down in death 
 are to be raised up. Although their bodies may 
 have long since dissolved, though they may have 
 returned to the elements of which they were com- 
 posed, though dust has returned to dust, yet by 
 the power of God there is to be a resurrection of 
 the dead. This is the teaching of the Bible. It 
 is through a resurrection that the dead saints are 
 to enter upon their j3romised eternal life. " Mar- 
 vel not at this ; for the *hour is coming in which 
 all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, 
 and shall come forth ; they that have done good, 
 unto the resurrection of life ; and they that have 
 done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." 
 
 Multitudes of God's dear ones are cold in 
 death. In all parts of the earth their scattered 
 bones are lying. But one object of the advent 
 of the Messiah is that He may raise these dead 
 ones. They are to be raised at his coming, and 
 not until then. " For as in Adam all die, even 
 so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every 
 man in his own order ; Christ the first fruits ; 
 afterwards they that are Christ's at His coming?'' 
 " The Lord himself shall descend. . . . and the 
 dead in Christ shall rise." "At that time shall 
 Michael stand up. . . . and at that time thy 
 people shall be delivered, every one that shall be 
 found written in the book. And many of them 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 59 
 
 that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, 
 some to everlasting life, and some to shame and 
 everlasting contempt." It is when the Lord 
 cometh out of His place to punish the inhabitants 
 of the earth for their iniquity, that the earth 
 shall disclose her blood and no more cover her 
 slain. It is when the trumpet shall sound at the 
 coming of Jesus that the dead saints shall be 
 raised incorruptible, and the living saints shall 
 be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an 
 eye, and shall be made immortal. 
 
 Again, when Jesus comes the second time it 
 will be to 
 
 JUDGE THE WORLD. 
 
 A time of judgment is taught throughout the 
 Bible, both in the Old Testament and in the 
 New. " The Lord will judge His people." 
 " God shall judge the righteous and the wicked." 
 " God shall bring every work into judgment." 
 " We must all appear before the judgment seat 
 of Christ." " Every one of us shall give account 
 of himself to God." " The Lord knoweth how 
 to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to 
 reserve the unjust unto the Day of Judgment to 
 be punished." 
 
 The time of judgment will be when Jesus 
 comes. To sit as Judge on the throne of eter- 
 nal justice is one of the objects of His return. 
 Judgment is not going on all the time as some 
 
60 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 people try to make themselves believe. Men are 
 not judged when they die. But God "hath 
 appointed a day in which He will judge the 
 world." Jesus said, " The word that I have 
 spoken, the same shall judge him (not at death, 
 but) in the last day" This " last day," this day 
 that is "appointed," is when Jesus comes. Noth- 
 ing is to be judged "before the time, until the 
 Lord comes" But at that time the world will 
 be judged. Then it shall be known whether or 
 not our lives have been lived in vain. Then 
 shall we answer for ourselves for the way Ave 
 have here conducted ourselves. 
 
 We know that judgment is to take place when 
 Jesus comes, because the Bible so teaches. 
 " For He cometh to judge the earth." " Our 
 God shall come, and shall not keep silence. . . . 
 He shall call to the heavens from above, and to 
 the earth, that He may judge His people." " He 
 shall judge the quick and the dead at His appear- 
 ing" It is when He shall come in the glory of 
 His Father, sitting upon His glorious throne, 
 that the nations shall be gathered before Him, 
 and He shall separate the righteous from the 
 wicked. 
 
 And, again, when Jesus comes it will be to 
 
 GIVE REWARDS. 
 
 Of course people will not be rewarded before 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 61 
 
 they are judged. That would be absurd. So 
 rewards are not given when people die, not until 
 the day of judgment when the Judge returns. 
 " Behold," said He " I come quickly, and my re- 
 ward is with me, to give every man according as 
 his work shall be." The wicked shall then re- 
 ceive their reward, or punishment. For it is 
 " when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from 
 heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire 
 taking vengeance on them that know not God," 
 that the wicked " shall be punished with ever- 
 lasting destruction." This is the clay that shall 
 burn as an oven, when all the proud and all that 
 do wickedly shall be stubble, when they shall be 
 burned up and left neither root nor branch. 
 
 And it is at the time of the coming of Jesus 
 that the righteous are to be rewarded for their 
 faithfulness. This is the time when He shall 
 make up His jewels. This is the time when He 
 shall send forth His angels and they shall gather 
 together His elect. This is the time when crowns 
 shall be placed upon the worthy brows, when the 
 redeemed shall be arrayed in white, when they 
 shall be made immortal and shall joyfully enter 
 upon their happy existence in the kingdom of 
 God, where nothing can ever come to mar, to 
 molest, to cause unhappiness. The trial of their 
 faith shall " be found unto praise and honor and 
 glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ" It is 
 
62 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 when the chief Shepherd shall appear that they 
 shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not 
 away. 
 
 And, again, He is to come to earth once more 
 to 
 
 REDEEM THE EARTH. 
 
 God originally gave the earth to man that he 
 might subdue it and have dominion over it. But, 
 because of man's sin, the earth has been placed 
 under the bane of the curse of God. It is no 
 longer as it was when it came from the hand of 
 God, when He pronounced everything " very 
 good." The earth has been subjected to vanity 
 because of the sin of Adam. It now groans and 
 travails beneath the curse. It is out of order, 
 torn, and tossed, and racked, like a sick man. 
 But harmony and beauty are yet to be restored. 
 The second Adam, Christ, will undo the work of 
 the first Adam. Christ has purchased the earth. 
 We are now but waiting for the " redemption of 
 of the purchased possession." Christ will redeem 
 it when He comes again. He will bring: it back 
 to its former beauty. It will again glow with 
 more that its original glory. The world which 
 was promised to Abraham and to his seed shall 
 be theirs for an everlasting possession. God 
 will keep His promise. It has not been fulfilled 
 yet, but it will be when Christ shall come, when 
 shall take place the "restitution of all things 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. (53 
 
 spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets.'' 
 God made the earth to be the abode of man. 
 " He created it not in vain ; He formed it to be 
 inhabited." It was to be inhabited by a race of 
 pure beings, such as were Adam and Eve when 
 they were first created. But they sinned, and, 
 as a result, came the curse, and a race of sinning, 
 sorrowing mortals. But God is not to be frus- 
 trated in His designs. Earth will be redeemed, 
 and upon it shall dwell eternally a race of holy, 
 happy beings. Jesus, when He comes, will re- 
 new, re-make the earth ; and upon the beautified, 
 glorified, re-Edenized earth the redeemed ones 
 of all ages shall peacefully abide. " We look for 
 new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth 
 righteousness." " The meek shall inherit the 
 earth, and shall delight themselves in the abun- 
 dance of peace." " The righteous shall inherit 
 the land, and dwell therein forever." And, in 
 order to fit it for their dwelling place, the Re- 
 deemer shall redeem it when He comes again. 
 
 Now that our faith is established as to the 
 certainty of the coming of Jesus, and as we know 
 something, also, regarding the object of His com- 
 ing, we next would know something about 
 
 THE MAXXER OF THE ADVENT. 
 
 We have found that Jesus is surely coming, 
 but how is He coming? What will be the form 
 
64 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 of His reappearance ? What the manner of His 
 manifestation ? 
 
 When Jesus comes the second time He will 
 come in person. To a candid student of Script- 
 ure there can be no doubt of this. He is not to 
 come in a spiritual sense, as some pretend to 
 suppose. The Spirit of God was poured out in a 
 wonderful manner on the day of Pentecost; but 
 this was not the return of Christ. The Spirit of 
 the Lord has been with true believers ever since 
 that first outpouring ; but this is not the advent 
 of Jesus. The Lord Jesus, in fulfillment of His 
 promise, " Lo, I am with you always," has been 
 with His Church in a spiritual sense to aid, to 
 comfort, to bless, for these centuries past ; but 
 this is not His oft-predicted appearing. He is to 
 come personally. The same Jesus who was 
 crucified ; the same Jesus who was literally raised 
 from the dead ; the same Jesus who said, " Han- 
 dle me, and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and 
 bones as ye see me have ;" the same Jesus who, 
 from the view of His assembled, disciples, was 
 taken up bodily and received into a cloud, — this 
 same Jesus is to return to earth by-and-by. 
 
 Those two white-apparelled messengers from 
 glory who, as Jesus disappeared from the fond 
 gaze of His loving followers, stood for a moment 
 in their astonished presence, told the manner 
 of His reappearing. " This same Jesus, which 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 65 
 
 is taken up from you into heaven, shall so 
 come in like manner as ye have seen Him 
 go into heaven." And this is corroborated 
 by Paul when He says, " The Lord him self shall 
 descend from heaven." Not a phantom, but the 
 Lord "himself." Not a dispensation of Provi- 
 dence, but the Lord " himself." Says Sir Charles 
 Sabine : " Did He spiritually go ? Then spirit- 
 ually He will return. Did He go personally and 
 bodily ? Then personally and bodily will He 
 return. Who mocks the sorrow and taunts the 
 hope of the loving wife, by telling her that her 
 absent husband will return to her spiritually ? 
 And where is the loving wife whom such mockery 
 would persuade to quit her watch-tower, on her 
 accustomed evening walk, that she may look out 
 for and welcome the return of the beloved of 
 her heart ? " 
 
 Some conjecture that the Lord comes at death, 
 that the death of the believer is the coming of 
 the Lord to him. But this cannot be, as this 
 would necessitate many advents, whereas the 
 Bible speaks of but two ; namely, the first com- 
 ing, which is in the past ; and the second, which 
 is still future. " L'nto them that look for Him 
 shall He appear the second time" 
 
 Speaking of the Saviour's coming, Mr. Moody 
 said : " Some people say that means death : but 
 the Word of God does not say it means death. 
 
66 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 Death is our enemy, but our Lord hath the keys 
 of death ; He has conquered death, hell, and the 
 grave, and at any moment He may come to set 
 us free from death, and destroy our last enemy 
 for us ; so the proper state for a believer in 
 Christ is waiting and watching for our Lord's 
 return. 
 
 "CHRIST IS THE PRINCE OF LIFE. 
 
 There is no death where He is ; death flees 
 at His coming ; dead bodies sprang to life when 
 He touched them or spoke to them. His com- 
 ing is not death; He is the resurrection and 
 the life, when He sets up His kingdom there is 
 
 to be no death, but life forevermore 
 
 " Look at that account of the last hours of Christ 
 with His disciples. What does Christ say to 
 them ? If I go away I will send death after you 
 to bring you to me ? I will send an angel after 
 you ? Not at all. He says 1 1 will come and re- 
 ceive you unto myself." ' 
 
 Jesus said, "I will come again." "I come 
 quickly." Notice that it is the i I ' who is to come. 
 Jesus did not say, ' My Spirit is coming again,' 
 or anything on that line, but ' I am to come, in 
 my own proper person.' 
 
 " c If I go,' says Christ, c I will come again.' 
 The ' I ' that departs is the ' I ' that is to return. 
 We know the He ascended personally, and per- 
 sonally must He descend." 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 67 
 
 "Jesus is to come personally. This is the 
 evident import of His own words, and of those 
 spoken on this subject by His disciples ; and, in 
 this respect, His second coming is similar to His 
 first." 
 
 " We cannot resist the inference that the only 
 coming known to Scripture is personal, and that 
 He ' who is with His people even unto the end of 
 the world ' is with them in spirit, and hence, 
 when that end shall arrive, His manifestation 
 must necessarily be bodily and visible." — Dr. 
 Lorimer. 
 
 "If Christianity, then, can teach us anything, 
 or if the declarations of the Scriptures are at all 
 binding upon us, as we profess to believe that 
 they are, we must accept it as a truth, and rely 
 upon it as an infallible verity, that the same 
 Jesus who was born at Bethlehem, crucified on 
 Calvary, and received up into heaven from 
 Mount Olivet, is literally and personally to re- 
 turn again to this world, to be seen with our 
 eyes and heard with our ears, as He was see.n 
 and heard in the day that He was taken up. . . . 
 
 " I accordingly accept and declare it, as a doc- 
 trine that must stand or fall with Christianity 
 itself, that Jesus is literally and personally ', and 
 with great power and glory, to return again to 
 this world, once more to tread the localities 
 already hallowed to His Church by His miracles 
 
68 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 and prayers, and tears and blood." — Hev. J. A. 
 Seiss, D. D. 
 
 Second. — When Jesus comes again it will be 
 with 
 
 " POWER AND GREAT GLORY." 
 
 "He shall come in His own glory, and in 
 His Father's, and of the holy angels." The 
 whole heavens will flash with the awful resplen- 
 dence of His divine presence. The skies will 
 glow with the excellent brilliancy of His glorious 
 Second Advent. " He shall be revealed from 
 heaven . . . in flaming fire" When He came 
 to earth before it was as a weak babe in Bethle- 
 hem's manger. When He comes again it will be 
 as an all-conquering King. " Thine eyes shall 
 see the King in His beauty." When he came 
 before, He was " despised and rejected of men." 
 When He comes again, and His lightnings en- 
 lighten the world, then all the earth shall see and 
 tremble. When He came before it was as a sac- 
 rifice to die on Calvary's cross. When He 
 comes again it will be as Judge sitting upon " a 
 great white throne." When he came before 
 His enemies crowned Him with thorns. When 
 He comes again then ' on His head will be many 
 crowns,' and His friends will 
 
 11 Bring forth the royal diadem, 
 And crown Him Lord of all." 
 
 
THE CB OWNING HOPE. 69 
 
 He came before in humility and weakness. He 
 will come again in a radiant glory exceeding the 
 brightness of the sun, and with all power in 
 heaven and earth at His command. 
 
 " The second coming of Christ will be magnif- 
 icent and gloriously sublime, and no mortal 
 tongue can truly describe the scene. He shall 
 come an all-glorious King. The keys of death 
 and the grave will hang at the immortal Con- 
 queror's side; and His head will be crowned 
 with a halo of glory that shall outshine the sun ; 
 His garments will be no gaudy trappings of 
 earth ; His flowing robes will be more beautiful 
 than the rainbow; He shall gather the finest 
 clouds of the universe and wrap them about Him 
 for a chariot, and all the planets of the heavens 
 shall shine in their brightest splendor as the 
 Christ of glory comes down the pathway of the 
 glory-gilded skies. He comes ! He comes ! 
 The immortal Conqueror comes ! He comes to 
 take the throne and raise the righteous dead, to 
 change the living saints, and reign from shore to 
 shore ! ... Oh, what melody comes rolling 
 down the skies ! c Worthy is the Lamb,' they 
 cry, ' that was slain,' to redeem a guilty, lost, re- 
 bellious world!" — Rev. D. C. Wheeler, in 
 Christian Reporter. 
 
 Third. — When our Saviour leaves the heaven 
 above to come again to earth He will be 
 
70 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 ATTENDED BY THE ANGELS. 
 
 " The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from 
 heaven with His mighty angels." He will not 
 come alone ; but, in a manner befitting the eternal 
 King, He will be accompanied by a splendid ret- 
 inue of shining seraphim. He shall come at the 
 head of an angelic train. The dazzling cohorts 
 from the upper world will attend His earthward 
 way. The brilliant bands of those blissful beings 
 will fill the glory-flashing skies. " For the Son 
 of man shall come in the glory of His Father 
 with His angels? " Behold," said Enoch, pro- 
 phetically, "He comes with His Holy Myriads." 
 How magnificent will be the advancing page- 
 antry of heaven ! How sublime will be that 
 unparalled occasion "when He cometh in the 
 glory of His Father with the holy angels." 
 
 Fourth. — When Jesus comes to earth again 
 He will come 
 
 SUDDENLY AND UNEXPECTEDLY. 
 
 M In such an hour as ye think not the Son of 
 Man cometh." When the wicked world is 
 dreaming ; when the people are all unready ; 
 when they are laying pleasant plans for the far 
 future, — He will come. As the midnight robber 
 comes when he is not expected, so will Jesus 
 come. " For yourselves know perfectly that the 
 day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 71 
 
 night. For when they shall say, Peace and 
 safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon 
 them, as travail upon a woman with child; and 
 they shall not escape." As comes the blinding 
 glare of lightning from the heavens overhead, so 
 will the Saviour come. " For as the lightning 
 cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto 
 the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of 
 man be." " Behold," said Jesus, " I come 
 quickly" 
 
 ■ H Not slowly, slowly, like twilight; 
 Nor, like the cold, creeping tide, — 
 Or bark, from its distant offing, 
 Moving on — o'er the waters wide. 
 But instant ! like sudden lightning 
 In the depths of a tranquil sky, — 
 From west to east, — in a moment 
 The havoc descends from on high. 
 
 " The day of the Lord it cometh 
 When the virgins are all asleep, 
 And the drunken world is lying 
 In a slumber yet more deep : 
 Like the sudden lurch of a vessel 
 By night, on the sunken rock ; 
 All earth in a moment reeleth, 
 And goeth down with a shock."— Bonar. 
 
 Fifth. — When Jesus comes again He will 
 come in 
 
 THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN. 
 
 We are informed that when He ascended " a 
 cloud received Him;" and those brightly ap- 
 parelled ones said that he would come in the 
 
72 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 same manner that He went. Said John, " Be- 
 hold, He cometh with clouds." Said Jesus 
 himself; " Then shall appear the sign of the Son 
 of man in heaven ; and then shall all the tribes 
 of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son 
 of man coming in the clouds of heaven with 
 power and great glory." 
 
 Some of us love to watch the clouds, they are 
 so varied and beautiful. We have seen clouds 
 of inky blackness; we have seen clouds of 
 snowy whiteness ; we have seen clouds brightly- 
 tinted and many-hued, made brilliantly gorgeous 
 by the golden glow of the setting sun. But we 
 never yet have seen clouds made magnificently 
 glorious by the shining splendor of the presence 
 of the Son of God. We have seen clouds 
 charged with thunder and flashing with light- 
 ning ; but we have never yet seen the clouds 
 that are charged with divine wrath and flashing 
 with the radiance of divine resplendence. We 
 have seen the morning clouds as they enwrap 
 the hill -tops and nestle upon the distant mount- 
 ain side ; but we never have seen those celestial 
 clouds that shall enwrap the awful form of the 
 coming Mighty One. We have seen the clouds 
 that carry rain to refresh the dry and thirsty 
 land ; but we never have seen the clouds that 
 shall be the down-speeding chariot of heaven's 
 High One when He comes to refresh His waiting 
 
fHE CROWNING HOPE. 73 
 
 saints with the welcome out-pourings of eternal 
 redemption. But such a sublime spectacle shall 
 yet greet the eyes of all. For, "Behold, He 
 cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him." 
 What a sight that will be ! How it will thrill 
 with heavenly rapture the faithful ones who 
 " love His appearing," and who have ' hoped to 
 the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto 
 them at the revelation of Jesus Christ.' Per- 
 haps it will be some evening as, with tired bodies, 
 but with happy hearts and meditative minds, we 
 are gazing upon the colored clouds of sunset; 
 when, of a sudden, the evening's waning 
 light will take on a new brightness, and will 
 lighter, brighter, more dazzling grow, until it re- 
 veals itself to us as the advancing glory of our 
 much-desired King. Or, mayhap, it will be in 
 the day's early hours when the newly -risen sun 
 has driven off night's darkness and has begun 
 to scatter the morning mists away ; when, sud- 
 denly, we shall see a " light from heaven, above 
 the brightness of the sun," and on a glory-cloud 
 we behold our Conquering Hero come. 
 
 In bringing this chapter to a close we would 
 again impress upon your minds the great truth 
 that Jesus is coming to earth again. Receive 
 this truth and believe it. Do not forget it. 
 Have it in continual remembrance. He is com- 
 ing personally, literally, visibly, in the glowing 
 
74 THE CROWNING HOPf. 
 
 clouds of heaven, in awful pomp, with unlimited 
 power, attended by the bright armies of glory. 
 He is coming for a purpose. He will raise the 
 dead, judge the world, reward the people, re- 
 deem the earth, and reign triumphantly on 
 David's throne .forever. We then shall want 
 to reign with Him. We can do so if we will 
 but make the effort. His word is : " Behold, I 
 stand at the door and knock ; if any man will 
 hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in 
 to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. 
 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with 
 me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and 
 am set down with mv Father on His throne." 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 75 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE PJRESENT EFFECTS OF THE CEOWNING HOPE. 
 
 We have been discussing an important subject. 
 Great as are the various questions that have 
 agitated the minds of men in our own and in 
 other ages, there is no question greater than this y 
 the Advent of Christ. There is nothing upon 
 which hang more weighty and more sacred 
 issues. This has to do, not alone with time, but 
 also with eternity. This has to do with the 
 great and mysterious future. We are interest ed 
 in that which is before us. The coming of the 
 Lord is that which shall directly affect our future 
 destiny. We then shall find out whether it is to 
 be well with us, or ill with us. " Surely I know 
 that it shall be well with them that fear God. 
 . . . But it shall not be well with the wicked, 
 neither shall he prolong his days." 
 
 There are many who love Jesus so much that 
 they would like to see Him. Their affection for 
 Him is so great that they are pleased at the 
 thought of His reappearance. Such ones are 
 designated as those i% that love His appearing." 
 They have in their hearts the Crowning Hope. 
 Upon this event of His coming hangs their one 
 
76 THE CB OWNING HOPE. 
 
 Hope of future good. But while they know that 
 the fullness of fruition and the consummation of 
 their ardent desires will not be granted until 
 the Saviour shall come, yet the very thought 
 that He will come at some future time, has its 
 effects upon them even now. It cannot do 
 otherwise than affect them. With their hearts 
 continually set upon this Hope, and with it con- 
 stantly in their minds, it cannot help bringing 
 about results in their present life. 
 
 Are these results good or bad ? In the nature 
 of the case they cannot but be beneficial. It is 
 a good Hope ; it must, therefore, bring about 
 good results. If we were gladly looking for an 
 evil thing, and our minds were willingly and 
 incessantly dwelling upon the evil, it could do 
 nothing but bring about results of evil ; but as this 
 is high and holy and noble, it must necessarily 
 bring about corresponding results. 
 
 " This (the coming of the Lord) was the firm 
 belief of the early Christians, and this expectation 
 with them was allowed to exert a constant influ- 
 ence on their hearts and lives. It led them (1) 
 to desire to be prepared for His coming; (2) to 
 feel that earthly affairs were of little importance, 
 as the scene here was soon to close ; (3) to live 
 above the world, and in the desire of the appear- 
 ing of the Lord Jesus. This was one of the ele- 
 mentary doctrines of their faith, and one of the 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 77 
 
 means of producing deadness to the world among 
 them ; and among the early Christians there 
 was, perhaps, no doctrine that was more the ob- 
 ject of firm belief, and the ground of more de- 
 lightful contemplation, than that their ascended 
 Master* would return." — Albert Barnes. 
 
 " But among all the mighty motives that God 
 has placed before the minds of Christian men, 
 whether to impress their own hearts, or to be 
 used by them to influence those around them, 
 there is one that stands pre-eminent in the po- 
 tency of its influence, and in the universality of 
 its application ; — a motive addressed to every 
 single soul of man, which affects alike the desti- 
 nies of the living and the dead ; which has had 
 weight throughout all generations, and every 
 clime and land ; and which, next to the inward 
 working of the Spirit of the Lord, may be re- 
 garded as a controlling force in the system of 
 divine revelation. Not even the thought of the 
 shortness of life, or the solemnities of death; 
 the fear of hell, or the hope of glory ; the joy 
 of the saved, or the ruin of the lost, — can vie in 
 awful weight, and solemn majesty, and impress- 
 ive influence, and awakening power, with the 
 great fact that Jesus Christ, the crucified and 
 glorified Redeemer, the humbled and exalted 
 Saviour, the Son of Mary and the Son of God, 
 shall come again in all the glory of his Father, 
 
78 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 to judge the world in righteousness at the last 
 day 
 
 " No external motive can be stronger in its 
 influence upon both saint and sinner, than the 
 consideration of that great event which marks 
 the meeting-place of two eternities, the crisis in 
 the history of the planet and the race, the hour 
 which bears the burden of immortal destinies, 
 which closes up this present dispensation of 
 mercy to the world, and opens to our view the 
 scene of glory which shall reach throughout all 
 the ages, world without end." — JET. L. Hastings. 
 
 Now, what will be the effect upon our lives if 
 we fully believe that Jesus is coming to earth 
 again, and that we will be obliged to stand be- 
 fore Him to be judged? We read, "We must 
 all appear before the judgment seat of Christ." 
 And we know that nothing is to be judged " be- 
 fore the time, until the Lord come, who both 
 will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, 
 and will make manifest the counsels of the heart." 
 Christ is to "Judge the quick and the dead at 
 His appearing, and His kingdom." Knowing 
 this, and desiring to be prepared for that time, 
 how will it naturally influence us now? What 
 effect will it have upon us to have in our hearts 
 deeply rooted the grand Hope of the personal 
 return of the Saviour ? I say it will have the 
 effect of 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 79 
 
 PURIFYING OUR LIVES. 
 
 In John 3 : 2-3, we read : " Beloved, now are 
 we the children of God, and it is not yet made 
 manifest what we shall be. We know that, if He 
 shall be manifested, we shall be like Him ; for 
 we shall see Him even as He is. And every one 
 that hath this Hope set on Him [the very Hope 
 we have been discussing] purifieth himself, even 
 as He is pureT — R. V. 
 
 This surely is a good result. And this is 
 something that is needed just now. Men and 
 women are no purer than they should be. In 
 fact we believe many are hardly up to the stand- 
 ard. But this Hope of the coming of Jesus has 
 a tendency to cause people to become purer. 
 Only holy men and pure women will be able to 
 stand in that day : and so, because they desire to 
 be prepared and to be received into " everlasting 
 habitations," the conduct of their lives will be 
 guided accordingly. 
 
 And in Titus 2 : 11-13, we read something on 
 the same line : " Denying ungodliness and 
 worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, 
 and godly, in this present world ; looking for 
 that blessed Hope, and the glorious appearing of 
 the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ ; 
 who gave himself for us, that He might redeem 
 us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a 
 peculiar people zealous of good works." 
 
80 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 The following is from a writer whose name I 
 do not know : " If a Christian lives under the 
 power of this glorious Hope he will just as certain- 
 ly be purified by it as the linen is to whiten out 
 under the rays of the sun. You may say that it 
 is too distant and mysterious an idea to effect us 
 very strongly. But it is what we contemplate 
 that influences us most powerfully, not what we 
 see and handle merely. ' As a man thinketh in 
 his heart, so is he.' The iron becomes magne- 
 tized by the magnet against which it grinds. 
 And the soul becomes assimilated to that on 
 which it thinks. Christians are described in 
 Scripture by this distinctive title — 'those that 
 love his appearing.' We become like that which 
 we love. If the object of our affection be a sor- 
 did one, it will give a sordid and selfish tinge to 
 all our thoughts and desires ; if it be an elevated 
 one it will just as certainly exalt and sublimate 
 our affections. Michael Angelo, by perpetual 
 looking up to the marvellous frescos on which 
 he wrought in the church domes, acquired a fixed 
 upward gaze which he never outgrew, so that as 
 he passed along the street he seemed all the 
 while to be contemplating something in the sky. 
 And Christ left this great Hope to his church 
 in order that it might give a steady, moral uplift 
 to the light — that so the disciple might have his 
 face turned heavenward and not earthward. 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. SI 
 
 Mourner, do not look towards the grave and 
 allow your life to reflect its shadows ; but look 
 toward the sky and catch the light of the resurrec- 
 tion morn ! Christian, do not look towards the 
 earth or let your countenance be tinged with the 
 reflection of the yellow gold, but look toward 
 the throne and let your face reflect the light of 
 the knowledge of the glory of God from the face 
 of Jesus Christ. May God help you to be like 
 men who wait for their Lord when He shall re- 
 turn from heaven. 'For every one that hath 
 this Hope in him purifieth himself even as He is 
 pure." ' 
 
 When Paul w^ould effect brotherly love and 
 unblamable holiness in the hearts of the people, 
 it is in view of our Saviour's coming. "And 
 the Lord make you to increase and abound in 
 love one toward another, and toward all men, 
 even as we do toward you : to the end He may 
 establish your hearts unblamable in holiness be- 
 fore God, even our Father, at the coming of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints." (1 Thes. 
 3: 12-13). 
 
 When the apostle would admonish Timothy 
 in regard to keeping the commandment, he does 
 it in connection with the thought of the Second 
 Advent. " I give thee charge in the sight of God r 
 who quickeneth all things, and before Christ 
 Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a 
 
82 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 good confession ; that thou keep this command- 
 ment without spot, unrebukable, until the ap- 
 pearing of our Lord Jesus Christ?' (1 Timothy 
 6: 13-14.) 
 
 When we are taught entire sanctifi cation it is 
 in view of this same event. " And the very God 
 of peace sanctify you wholly ; and I pray God 
 your spirit and soul and body be preserved 
 blameless imto the coming of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ^ (1 Thes. 5; 23.) 
 
 We desire to meet our Saviour in peace. It 
 is our wish to be able to give Him a hearty wel- 
 come. In order to do so we shall have to be 
 prepared. We must have our houses in order. 
 We must turn the buyers and sellers from the 
 temple of our heart. We must allow no evil 
 thing to make its abode there. We must allow 
 nothing there that is wrong. There must be a 
 careful cleansing, a complete renovation, a thor- 
 ough purification. No impure thing must be al- 
 lowed to remain. If, when Jesus comes, the 
 heart is foul and filthy, we shall not be able to 
 meet Him in peace. If unclean thoughts and 
 unholy desires are abiding there, we cannot 
 gladly greet the approaching King. 
 
 ' Nothing unclean can enter in 
 
 Where Christ will ever reign ; 
 His eyes, so pure, cannot endure 
 The sight of spot or stain." 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 83 
 
 And if we, by indulgence in sin, are spotted 
 and stained, we cannot endure to meet Him. 
 We know that He is coming. Our desire is to 
 be prepared. We cannot be prepared while we 
 are vile and impure. It must, therefore, have 
 upon us the effect of purifying our lives, making 
 them holy, just, and right, and causing us "to do 
 justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly 
 with our God." 
 
 The thought of the coming of Jesus will con- 
 duce to the 
 
 COXSECKATION TO GOD 
 
 of ourselves and all our belongings. Not only 
 will we, in view of the return of the King eter- 
 nal, strive for holiness of heart, but we will see 
 that the purified powers of our ransomed being- 
 are consecrated, or set apart, for His service. We 
 shall not be seeking our own will, but the will of 
 Him whom we love and whom we expect to see 
 so soon. For His glory our very lives will be 
 set apart. Our lips will be used to speak and 
 sing His praise, our willing feet will be ready to 
 run on errands of love and mercy, our consecra- 
 ted hands will be reached forth to help those 
 who are needy, our bodies shall be cleansed 
 temples of the Holy Spirit and put to no ignoble 
 uses, our head shall be filled with glad thoughts 
 of His appearing, and our hearts with true af- 
 fection for Him. Believing that He is coming 
 
84 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 soon, all the affairs of our life will be conducted 
 accordingly. Our loins will be girded about, 
 our lights will be burning, and we ourselves 
 shall be like unto men who wait for their Lord 
 when he will return from the wedding ; and, 
 when he cometh and knocketh, we will be ready 
 to open to him immediately. 
 
 Loving the appearing of the Lord Jesus, we 
 will not allow ourselves to be enticed away by 
 the things of earth, but will see how much 
 more durable and valuable are the things which 
 are yet unseen. Our minds will not be allowed 
 to be carried away by the foolish frivolities of the 
 world. The world's pleasures will not ensnare 
 us, for we shall find greater joy in communion 
 with God and with His saints, and in contemplat- 
 ing the rich treasures and never-ending pleasures 
 that shall soon be ours. We will not love the 
 world, neither the things that are in the world, 
 because we know if any man love the world, the 
 love of the Father is not in him ; and we know, 
 also, that the world passeth away and the lust 
 thereof, but it is he who does the will of God that 
 shall abide forever. 
 
 If we are truly the Lord's and truly love His 
 appearing, it seems to me that the knowledge 
 that He is to return, and that then, if we have 
 been faithful to Him, we shall be made in- 
 effably and continually happy, — it seems to me 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 85 
 
 that it would have the effect of weaning us away 
 from earthly desires and worldly ambitions. 
 The things of time are fleeting. They do not 
 endure. But we are looking for enduring and 
 unfading glories. Our present should be so 
 swallowed up in the future that we continually 
 should be living for Eternity and not for Time. 
 
 We will not seek for fame. Even if we could 
 attain to it, it would not be lasting. And we 
 know that the applause of men is as nothing 
 compared with the approbation of God. So we 
 will seek His approval that we may " have praise 
 of God," and be approved when Jesus comes; 
 " that, when His glory shall be revealed, we may 
 be glad also with exceeding joy." 
 
 We will not be seeking after the world's 
 wealth, its silver and its gold. But, on the con- 
 trary, we shall have learned that " he that loveth 
 silver shall not be satisfied with silver ; nor he 
 that loveth abundance, with increase." We shall 
 have found that earthly " riches certainly make 
 themselves wings ; they fly away, as an eagle to- 
 ward heaven." We shall have found that "the 
 love of money is a root of all kinds of evil ;" and 
 that " they that will be rich fall into temptation 
 and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful 
 lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdi- 
 tion." We shall rather be seeking the " durable 
 riches ;" we shall be laying up for ourselves 
 
86 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 treasures in heaven ; we shall strive with all our 
 power to be cc rich toward God," even " rich in 
 faith, and heirs of the kingdom which He has 
 promised to them that love Him." Our present 
 riches will be consecrated to His service, ready 
 to be used to His glory ; we will be ever waiting 
 to know His will concerning them, and when we 
 find out we will act accordingly. We will not 
 waste by a lavish expenditure upon ourselves, 
 simply for show or for unneeded luxury ; but, as 
 stewards handling that which is the Lord's, and 
 is simply entrusted to us for a little while, and 
 believing we shall be held accountable for the 
 way it is used, we will ever hold it in subjection 
 to the will of God, using it as is most conducive 
 to His glory and to the good of mankind. We 
 will, as much as in us is, be ready to aid in 
 every good word and work, so far as we can see 
 it to be to the glory of God. Not only will we 
 do this by means of our good wishes and our 
 prayers, but also in a more material way, finan- 
 cially. 
 
 Then again, the great truth that Jesus is com- 
 ing, when it is felt in the heart, when it fills us 
 and thrills us, when our very being is permeated 
 with it, when we believe it so fully and so firmly 
 that it has become a part of our life, — this grand 
 truth is the greatest of all 
 
 INCENTIVES TO CHRISTIAN WOEK. 
 
THE CE OWNING HOPE. 87 
 
 It tends to make us active in the cause of 
 Christ. It spurs us on in our endeavors to win 
 souls for God. It makes us earnest in our labors 
 of love, in rescuing the perishing, in raising the 
 fallen, in encouraging the weak. It fills us with 
 a passionate yearning to see people getting ready 
 for that blessed, and yet that awful event. We 
 know that, while in their sins, people are unready 
 for it. We desire to have them ready. They 
 must do something in order to be ready. And 
 so we feel like laboring in their behalf, carrying 
 to them the good news of salvation, telling them 
 of a Saviour who is mighty to save all those who 
 will forsake their sins and trust in Him for re- 
 demption. The thought of the coming Judge 
 and the approaching judgment, the thought that 
 44 God will bring every work into judgment 
 with every secret thing," and the thought of the 
 perishing multitudes around us who are totally 
 unfitted for that sublime and trying hour, — cause 
 our hearts to be filled with earnest longings for 
 their salvation. And as their salvation may, to a 
 great extent, depend upon our efforts, how faith- 
 ful it will cause us to be in the Lord's work. 
 Jesus is coming ! Judgment is coming ! And 
 people in no condition for such things ! O, may 
 it have the effect of awakening us to a sense of 
 our responsibility, and of making us more active 
 in our christian endeavors than ever we have 
 
88 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 been before. Said Mr. Moody : " I have felt like 
 working three times as hard, ever since I came 
 to understand that my Lord was coming back 
 again. I look on this world as a wrecked vessel. 
 God has given me a life-boat, and said to me, 
 ' Moody, save all you can.' God will come in 
 judgment and burn up this world, but the children 
 of God do not belong to this world ; they are in 
 it, but not of it, like a ship in the water. This 
 world is getting darker and darker ; its ruin is 
 coming nearer and nearer ; if you have any 
 friends on this wreck unsaved, you had better 
 lose no time in getting them off." 
 
 But if a belief in the blessed doctrine of the 
 Saviour's personal coming spurs us on in our en- 
 deavors to reach the lost, what effect does this 
 doctrine have upon the unsaved themselves? 
 How does it affect the sinner ? 
 
 I know of nothing else that has so much ef- 
 fect upon the mind of unconverted ones as this 
 great truth — Jesus is coming, every eye shall 
 see Him, and all must appear in judgment before 
 Him. 
 
 We believe that the love of God, as it is re- 
 vealed in Jesus, is one of the greatest influences 
 that draw men to God. Their hard hearts are 
 softened by the sweet story of love, their natures 
 melt in tenderness before its softening power ; 
 the love of Christ constrains them, and the good- 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 89 
 
 ness of God leads them to repentance. But by 
 many natures something else is needed. They 
 are so infatuated by the world's pleasures, they 
 are so deeply steeped in sin, their hearts are so 
 calloused to all that is really good, that they need 
 something that will stir them to the inmost recess 
 of the soul, something that will startle them and 
 arouse them from their lethargy, something that 
 shall awaken them to a realizing sense of their 
 true condition, something that will rill them with 
 an overwhelming sense of the awful danger to 
 which they are exposed, something that shall 
 cause them to flee from the wrath to come, and 
 flee for refuge to lay hold upon the Hope set be- 
 fore them in a crucified Redeemer. And the 
 doctrine of the personal advent of Christ is just 
 the doctrine that has this tendency. The bare 
 thought of a personal interview with Him whose 
 love he has slighted and whose mercy he has 
 spurned is, to a sinful man, terrible in the ex- 
 treme. The thought that in an unprepared con- 
 dition he must be brought before the great white 
 throne of eternal justice is simply fearful. It is 
 oppressive. It is impressive. It impresses one's 
 mind with the sense of his own need, and he 
 seeks for a way of escape. He finds it in the 
 gospel. He finds it in Jesus. And, amazed at 
 the mercy of God, and thankful for the Rock of 
 refuge that has been provided, thither he flies with 
 
90 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 his guilt and his fear ; he has his sin forgiven and 
 his fear pacified, and himself become a redeemed 
 man, a child of God and an heir of glory. 
 
 Then, once more, before we bring this chapter 
 to a close, in regard to those who are saved, in 
 whose hearts the sweet peace of God is abiding, 
 whose lives are made hopeful by the blessings 
 and promises of God, whose existence -is made 
 calmly restful because of the continual spiritual 
 presence of Jesus, whose hearts are set on His 
 coming, and are patiently waiting for Him to 
 appear, — in regard to them there is one other 
 effect of which we would speak. And that is, 
 the sweetness of glad anticipation, the joyfulness 
 of fervent expectation, the real satisfaction there 
 is in looking forward to that blest event, the 
 pleasurable comfort one takes in contemplating 
 the coming of his Redeemer, and in dwelling in 
 imagination upon the ecstatic delights, the soul- 
 ravishing blissfulness which then shall come to 
 the sincere lovers of the blessed Jesus. 
 
 How the hearts of some Christians burn within 
 them as they meditate upon the joys of the future 
 world ! How their hearts beat with rapture ! 
 How their eyes glow with pleasure ! How their 
 faith reaches out into coming time, and, in ad- 
 vance, they enter into the spirit of the felicity of 
 the kingdom of God. They can delight them- 
 selves in the thought that He whom they love 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 91 
 
 is coming, that then He will receive them unto 
 himself, that in His holy presence they can 
 ever be, in His joys they shall share, in the 
 shining ranks of His ransomed ones they will 
 stand, in the swelling song of redemption they 
 will join, in the kingdom of heaven they shall 
 eternally dwell. The present thoughts of these 
 future joys till the mind of the Christian with the 
 calm, flowing pleasures of a pleasing Hope. And 
 well they may. 
 
 The city child, confined in the narrow precincts 
 of the crowded metropolis, shut in by its high 
 walls, and stifled by its smoky atmosphere, looks 
 forward with impatient delight to the prospect 
 of a day's outing in the country, where, breath- 
 ing its pure, bracing air ; basking in its bright, un- 
 obscured sunshine ; and roaming its broad, flower- 
 decked fields ; he can run and romp and revel to 
 the content of his childish heart. The mere 
 thought that he is to have such a picnic gives 
 him delight. And thus, also, the child of God, 
 who aspires to things high and noble and good, 
 but who is here surrounded by sin, stifled by the 
 impure atmosphere of an ungodly world, and 
 cramped in his spiritual life by the unfitness of 
 his invironment, looks hopefully forward to that 
 blest time when, his Saviour coming, it will be 
 his privilege to enter upon all the heavenly joys 
 
92 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 of Paradise. This very contemplation is a source 
 of pure and present happiness. 
 
 The true young woman, long separated from 
 the one to whom her heart's full affection is given, 
 to whom her hand is promised, and to whom at 
 some time she expects to be united in the holy 
 bonds of sacred matrimony; — she, with strangely 
 beating heart, and strangely joyous feelings, is 
 filled with pleasurable emotions as she thinks of 
 the happy hour when the loved one shall return, 
 and in each other's sweet society they shall be. 
 And so the true Christian who, as a chaste vir- 
 gin, is betrothed unto Christ, as his mind is 
 occupied with the pleasing thoughts of his Lord's 
 return, is oft times filled with emotions of ecstatic 
 rapture. So we see that the doctrine of the com- 
 ing of Jesus is a doctrine that has the effect of 
 making happy the hearts and making hopeful 
 and joyous the lives of those who believe it and 
 are ready for it. They can look beyond the 
 darkness of the present, and, by faith, can enjoy 
 the brightness of the future. They can soar 
 above the many vexations of life, and bathe 
 themselves in the pure sunlight of future glory. 
 
 In closing this chapter we can do so very 
 appropriately in the following words of Dr. A. 
 J. Gordon : M God's thoughts are not always 
 our thoughts. He has made this Hope of Christ's 
 return the supreme incentive to service and con- 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 93 
 
 secration. . . . Up, therefore, Christian ! Trim 
 your lamp ! Let its beams shine forth to meet 
 and mingle with the first advancing rays of the 
 bright and morning star! And let its light 
 meantime show you the way to every path of self- 
 denial, to every work of faithful service and 
 testimony, and to every avenue of holiness and 
 purity of life. Thus, with girded loins, with busy 
 hands, with uplifted eyes, and with radiant faces, 
 may you be ready to meet your descending Lord, 
 and to exult in His glorious appearing, saying, 
 1 Lo, this is our God ; we have waited for Him, 
 and He will save us, this is the Lord ; we have 
 waited for Him; we will be glad and rejoice in 
 His salvation.' " 
 
94 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE BEALIZATION OF THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 Transcendent morn ! when Christ shall come 
 
 To call His people from the tomb ! 
 
 Auspicious hour ! our hearts leap forth 
 
 To meet the coming King of Earth, 
 
 When He, with His seraphic train, 
 
 Shall come to our world again. 
 
 O blessed Bridegroom ! haste the time 
 
 When Thou, in majesty sublime, 
 
 Shalt come in glory from above 
 
 To claim Thy waiting Bride of love. 
 
 Well has the man of wisdom said that " Hope 
 deferred maketh the heart sick." Many, even in 
 the affairs of this life, have found this to be true. 
 Many a heart has been sickened by the delay of 
 some cherished object of expectation. When 
 first they aspired to it they thought not that it 
 was so far away. It was their thought to have 
 obtained it long before they did. And so they 
 have grown weary of long waiting, and of not 
 receiving that which they have desired. And 
 mayhap, they have become so completely dis- 
 couraged as to have given up all hopes, and 
 ceased all endeavors to attain to that which has 
 been their heart's desire. But if with patience 
 they have waited, and with industrious applica- 
 
THE CBOWNING HOPE. 95 
 
 tion have set themselves to the task of forward- 
 ing the object of their Hope, they may have 
 reached at last the goal of their aspirations. 
 
 If it be true that the deferring of the fading 
 hopes of earth make the aspirant sick at heart, 
 how much more is it true in regard to those 
 whose Hope is set upon those eternal and heav- 
 enly blessings which are to be realized at the ad- 
 vent of the Messiah, The blessings of that 
 august time are so much superior to the highest 
 things of earth that it is not to be wondered at if 
 the Christian looks earnestly forward to them, 
 and with yearning heart longs for the time when 
 they shall be received. The fulfilment of this 
 great Hope has indeed been long deferred, and 
 many hearts have felt sickness because of delay. 
 When they had thought its accomplishment nigh 
 at hand, yet it has been postponed. But, though 
 wearily waiting, and though some of the hours 
 may have dragged by with painful slowness, still 
 has their trust remained firm. They know God 
 will keep His word. And they are aware that 
 His way is right, and that His time is best. 
 Surely " at the time appointed 'the end shall be ;" 
 and it is at God's appointed time that c ' He shall 
 send Jesus Christ," and then shall occur the " res- 
 titution of all things which God hath spoken.'' 
 And though that time has been long in coming, 
 
96 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 yet it will come ; and, " when the desire cometh, 
 it is a tree of life." 
 Some can truly say : 
 
 11 Long we've been waiting for Christ to come, 
 Long we have watched for the morning ; 
 Still for that happy, eternal home, 
 The pilgrims are earnestly longing." 
 
 And again with Bonar they can say : 
 
 " The Church has waited long 
 Her absent Lord to see ; 
 And still in loneliness she waits, 
 A friendless stranger she." 
 
 But the Crowning Hope will not always be de- 
 ferred. The great consummation will not for- 
 ever linger. The fulfilment of our dearest 
 hopes will not be eternally delayed. We shall 
 not always be obliged to walk by faith. The 
 heart will not always be sick at the delay of the 
 fulfilment of her fondest longings. Jesus will 
 come. And when He comes then shall the 
 saints be satisfied in His presence, and in the 
 joys He shall bring. So let us for a little while 
 meditate upon the blessedness of the time when 
 our Lord shall come and distribute His rewards. 
 
 First — There is the beatitude of His sacred 
 presence. O, how our pulses bound at the 
 thought of His appearing ! How our hearts leap 
 with exultation to think that He soon will come ! 
 How our souls glow with rapture to know that 
 they shall soon bathe themselves in the effulgence 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 97 
 
 of His personal presence ! How our eyes beam 
 with expectancy at the possibility of soon feast- 
 ing their ravished gaze on the noble form of Him 
 whom we adore ! How our very affections are 
 softened and chastened at the Hope of soon enjoy- 
 ing the society of Him whose love for us has been 
 so great. He will come ! Surely, He will not 
 delay ! His own heart yearns for His waiting 
 Bride ! The time of union, " the marriage of the 
 Lamb," must be near, when Jesus shall present 
 the Church to himself, " a glorious Church, not 
 having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." 
 
 What a time of felicity that will be ! What 
 joy and rejoicing! What happiness of heart! 
 What fullness of rapture ! How exceeding 
 abundantly above all that we asked or thought. 
 Though our expectations have often been kin- 
 dled to the hottest flame, yet we looked not for 
 such transcendent glory as this. 
 
 To be with Jesus. O, soul-stirring thought I 
 To be near His person and en j oy His society. Po- 
 sition angels might envy ! The glorious Christ, 
 the holy One of Israel, the eternal Son of God ; 
 and we looking upon Him, and being with Him I 
 What honor is this ! What bliss ! What com- 
 pletion of happiness ! What perfection of felic- 
 ity ! Truly, in His presence is fullness of joy, 
 and at His right hand there are pleasures forev- 
 ermore. He is greater than the great ones of 
 
98 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 the world. He is higher than the kings of the 
 earth. And yet. He drives us not away from 
 Him. He bids us welcome. He smiles upon us. 
 He showers upon us His favors. 
 
 O, the matchless grace of His person, and the 
 divine splendor of His court ! O, the inexpres- 
 sible grandeur that crowns His brow, and the 
 halo of glory all around ! And we there to par- 
 take of it, to drink it in, to gaze upon it, and to 
 dwell in it. This surely is the height of bliss, 
 the summit of rapture, the greatest favor and 
 blessing possible to man. 
 
 Then, again, when our Saviour comes there is 
 the meeting of long separated friends. 
 
 When the beloved head of a family has, for a 
 long time, been away in a foreign land, and the 
 patient wife and the affectionate children receive 
 the welcome tidings that he is to return soon, 
 how their faces lighten with joy and their hearts 
 bound anew with pleasure. How they anticipate 
 his return ! How they watch for his coming ! 
 They may be disappointed by expecting him too 
 soon ; but, with their loving hearts glowing with 
 Hope, they do not cease to watch and to pray 
 for his speedy arrival. And when at last, after 
 many weary waitings and saddening disappoint- 
 ments, they see in the distance his noble form 
 approaching, how they rush out to meet him. 
 How they cluster around him, and gaze into his 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 99 
 
 face, and hold his hand, and listen to the music 
 of his voice. If any are sleeping, or if any are 
 busy about the necessary work, they are called 
 to join in the general rejoicing. Husband has 
 returned ! Father is home again ! And his 
 presence gives happiness to all that family group. 
 And thus will it be when our Saviour returns. 
 What a reunion there then will be, a holy reun- 
 ion of all the family of God. When the Head of 
 the family comes the whole family will unite 
 to meet Him and give to Him a grand reception. 
 At present the flock is widely scattered. Myriads 
 of the saints are calmly sleeping the sleep of 
 death, waiting but for the blast of the Coming 
 One's trumpet to call them from their dusty beds 
 unto their heavenly home. Most assuredly 
 "Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence. 
 .... He shall call to the heavens from above, 
 and to the earth, that He may judge His people. 
 Gather my saints together unto meT " And then 
 shall He send His angels, and shall gather to- 
 gether His elect from the four winds, from the 
 uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part 
 of heaven." And Paul speaks of " the coming 
 of our . Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering 
 together unto Him" 
 
 And so, we're looking forward to 
 That morn of morns, when once again 
 The Lord shall visit earth; and when 
 With shout triumphant that shall loud 
 
100 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 Reverberate from hillside and 
 
 From mountain top ; shall echo through 
 
 The silent valleys ; sweep across 
 
 The wide and treeless plains ; shall pierce 
 
 Old Ocean's cozy caves remote,— 
 
 Death's conqueror, the Prince of Life, 
 
 In power back to earth shall come. 
 
 Then, at that loud commanding voice, 
 
 The sleeping ones, who have beneath 
 
 The chilling turf been lying long, 
 
 Shall feel the thrill of life return; 
 
 And from the tomb shall upward rise. 
 
 For grim and cruel Death can now 
 
 No longer hold the pilgrim there ; 
 
 But, with a shout both glad and long, 
 
 The unwelcome coverlid of dust 
 
 Aside is tossed ; the head from low 
 
 And mouldy pillow now is raised ; 
 
 And man from death does joyful spring. 
 
 How vast the congregating throng 
 
 The which does come,— from height and depth, 
 
 From land and sea, from climate hot 
 
 And climate cold,— and answer to 
 
 The Master's call. They come ! They come ! 
 
 In what tremendous troops they come ! 
 
 By white robed angels guided on 
 
 Unto the glorious meeting place. 
 
 It shall be even as the Lord has said : " I will 
 bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee 
 from the west ; I will say to the north, Give up ; 
 and to the south, Keep not back : bring my sons 
 from far, and my daughters from the ends of the 
 earth; even every one that is called by my 
 name. "They shall come from the east, and 
 from the west, and from the north, and from the 
 south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of 
 God." 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 101 
 
 How many sad partings this world has wit- 
 nessed. Many and cruel have been the separa- 
 tions. Terrible, indeed, is the havoc that has 
 been wrought by Death. Families have been 
 divided, friends have been sundered and lovers 
 have been torn apart. How heart-rending have 
 been the scenes of sorrow on this account. No 
 doubt the reader knows what this sorrow is. 
 But it is comforting to know that, when Jesus 
 comes, those who have loved Him will be gath- 
 ered together in one eternally-united family. 
 
 Not long since we met a Christian lady whose 
 beautiful daughter had been cut down by Death's 
 ruthless hand. The relations between mother 
 and daughter had been especially happy. Not 
 only had the young lady been a daughter, but 
 she had been to her mother a confidante, a com- 
 panion, a friend. She had been a most estima- 
 ble young woman, intelligent, capable, pure of 
 heart ; and, moreover, a true and faithful follow- 
 er of the Lord Jesus. Her Saviour had been 
 very dear to her, and in His service she had been 
 unusually earnest and fervent. She loved the 
 thought of His appearing. The Crowning 
 Hope was her Hope. But the dark enemy, 
 Death, had done his merciless work, and she had 
 been taken from the active scenes of life. How 
 keenly the affectionate mother felt the separa- 
 tion. How crushing had been the blow, how 
 
102 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 cruel the sorrow, and how deep and continual 
 the anguish of heart. Months had passed since 
 that dread hour when Death had dared to invade 
 the sacred precincts of that home ; and yet the 
 grief was not assauged, the painful wound had 
 not been healed. A settled sadness had come 
 into that mother's life. But she is not " ignorant 
 concerning them that are asleep," neither can 
 she sorrow " even as others which have no 
 Hope." She knows that her child "shall come 
 again from the land of the enemy." She has the 
 Hope of meeting again the one to her so dear. 
 This glad reunion will take place at the return 
 of the Redeemer. 
 
 The fair-haired virgins, who went down 
 In maiden-hood's young bloom ; the ones 
 Who, pure and holy, kept themselves 
 " Unspotted from the world," and, in 
 A time of vile impurity, 
 Their virtue still did keep intact- 
 Do now come forth, arrayed in white 
 Of spotless radiance, to meet 
 The heavenly Bridegroom as He comes 
 To call and claim His own. And now, 
 With holy joy and rapture pure, 
 They eagerly do greet the One 
 So well beloved, and at His own 
 Right hand, amidst the ransomed throng, 
 Most willingly do take their glad 
 And happy place. Their joy supreme 
 They scarce contain ; for, bursting from 
 Their welling hearts and flowing from 
 Their tuneful lips, does come the song 
 Of true acclaim, of praise to God 
 And honor to the Lamb once slain. 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 103 
 
 We ourselves have felt the pain caused by 
 death. Among others dear to us we have a 
 godly Father who has gone down to the grave. 
 Sweetly in Jesus he is sleeping. His Hope was 
 in the coming One. His heart loved the Saviour y 
 and he hoped in His appearing. But, before the 
 advent of his King, calmly did he fall asleep. 
 He rests from his labors, and his works do follow 
 him. In the bright morning he will not be for- 
 gotten. His Lord will call, and he will answer. 
 Forth from the tomb will he come. And then 
 we shall meet again. O glory ! Hallelujah ! 
 Praise God for such a Hope ! 
 
 The grey -haired sire, who did well 
 The day's fierce heat and burden hear, 
 Who bravely fought the fight of faith, 
 And through his Lord won victories ; 
 Until at last— that darksome hour— 
 When death's cold clutch did hold him fast 
 And dissolution did its sway assert, — 
 He now, from out the charnel-house, 
 Does gladly come to meet his loved 
 And glorious Friend. What joy supreme 
 Does all his raptured being till, 
 As, in His beauty, he beholds 
 The King he long and well has served, 
 And now rejoicing meets. 
 
 As I write my eyes are blinded. The tears 
 are falling. But though they are tears of sad- 
 ness, yet are they tears of Hope. O, such a Hope 
 is ours, this resurrection Hope; this Hope of 
 again meeting, when the Saviour comes, those 
 
104 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 whom we well have loved. Hail ! thou auspi- 
 cious morn, when the Resurrector shall appear ; 
 when shall be heard His voice piercing the tomb. 
 Hail ! thou glad time, when the Life-giver shall 
 come ; ' when we shall meet the loved of earth 
 and never part again.' 
 
 When the long absent Christ returns and we 
 have received our " eternal redemption," then no 
 longer shall we, through fear of death, be all our 
 life-time subject to bondage. The tyrant, Death, 
 will be no more. Christ then shall have abolished 
 death, which is the last enemy to be destroyed. 
 Of death He will be the plague, and of the grave 
 He will be the destruction. Death and the grave 
 shall be cast into the lake of fire, and shall be 
 utterly abolished. " He will swallow up death 
 in victory ; and the Lord God shall wipe away 
 tears from off all faces ; and the rebuke of His 
 people shall He take away from off all the earth." 
 Then, in joyous tones, the redeemed can cry 
 out, " O Death, where is thy sting? O Grave, 
 where is thy victory ?" For " they which shall 
 be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and 
 the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, 
 nor are given in marriage ; neither can they die 
 any more? 
 
 There will be no cemeteries in the kingdom of 
 God. No tombstones to mark the resting-places 
 of the dead. No coffins there! No sorrowful 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. , 105 
 
 gatherings to perform the last sad rites and pay 
 the last tokens of respect and love to a shrouded 
 form ! No preaching of funeral sermons ! No 
 silent and solemn funeral cortege wending its 
 mournful way to a place of burial ! No weeping 
 at a yawning grave ! No heart-breaking scenes 
 as the clods of earth hide from our view the 
 casket that encloses the form of one beloved. 
 For " there shall be no more death, neither sor- 
 row, nor crying." 
 
 And this brings us to another blesssd thought 
 in connection with the second advent of Jesus. 
 There is a reason why there shall be no more 
 death. It is that all the saved ones shall become 
 possessed of an endless life, shall be immortalized. 
 We are at present living " in Hope of eternal 
 life, which God who cannot lie, promised before 
 times eternal." We now have " the promise of 
 life which is in Christ Jesus." At present our 
 " life is hid with Christ in God." But " when 
 Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall 
 we also appear with Him in glory." We have 
 not in ourselves endlessness of life ; but, if we 
 endure temptation, we shall, when the Prince of 
 Life comes, " receive the crown of life which the 
 Lord hath promised to them that love Him." 
 We are dying creatures now, but then we shall 
 be undying. We are mortal now, but at that 
 time we shall be made immortal. That of us 
 
106 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 which is mortal shall be swallowed up of life. 
 That of us which is corrupt shall be put beyond 
 corruption. "We shall not all sleep, but we 
 shall all be changed,. in a moment, in the twink- 
 ling of an eye, at the last trump ; for the trumpet 
 shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incor- 
 ruptible, and we shall be changed. For this 
 corruptible must put on incorruption, and this 
 mortal must put on immortality" When the 
 Saviour shall come from heaven, He "shall 
 change our vile body, that it may be fashioned 
 like unto His glorious body, according to the 
 working whereby He is able even to subdue all 
 things unto himself." 
 
 And this again brings us to another sweet and 
 inspiring thought. When the Son of righteous- 
 ness shall arise with healing in His wings, and 
 oar bodies are immortalized and spiritualized, 
 we shall suffer no more the pangs of sickness 
 and pain. And if this is not a welcome assur- 
 ance then I know not what would be one. 
 
 Ever since Adam and Eve were driven from 
 the fair precincts of Eden's blest abode, bodily 
 sickness and suffering has been the fearful lot 
 of mankind. Malaria is in the air, and the germs 
 of disease are hidden in the recesses of the 
 body. Truly this earth has been one vast and 
 perpetual hospital. 
 
 O, the agony the human race has endured, the 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 107 
 
 sickness with which it has languished, and the 
 pain it has suffered ! Does not the spirit shrink, 
 and the heart quail, at the thought? The long 
 weary nights of restlessness, of tossings too and 
 fro, of aching brows, of throbbing veins, of burn- 
 ing fever, of wasting disease ! And the lingering 
 days of illness, of bodily anguish, of acutest pain,, 
 of excruciating agony ! The sighs half sup- 
 pressed, the agonizing groans betokening deep- 
 est distress, and the piercing shrieks of an agony 
 too intense to be stifled ! The old man hobbling 
 to the grave with his body racked and contorted 
 by rheumatic pains, and the child in the cradle 
 screaming in unrelieved anguish ! But let us 
 not linger here. Let us drop the curtain on 
 these scenes of human suffering and woe, and 
 turn our attention to those brighter things of fu- 
 turity. 
 
 TThen the Divine Healer comes, what a change 
 for the waiting Church of God. Then physical 
 infirmity will go, and bodily pains be no more. 
 "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and 
 the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then 
 shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the 
 tongue of the dumb shall sing," and in that land 
 of constant bliss and of buoyant and unfailing 
 health " the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick;" 
 " neither shall there be any more pain, for the 
 former things are passed away." 
 
108 THE CB OWNING HOPE. 
 
 " The Saviour comes ! by ancient bards foretold : 
 Hear Him, ye deaf, and all ye blind, behold ! 
 He from thick films shall purge the visual ray, 
 And on the sightless eyeball pour the day. 
 Tis He tlr obstructed paths of sound shall clear, 
 And bid new music charm th' unfolding ear ; 
 The dumb shall sing ; the lame his crutch forego, 
 And leap exulting, like a bounding roe. 
 INo sigh, no murmur, the wide world shall hear, 
 From every face He wipes off ev'ry tear."— Pope. 
 
 Then, again, when Jesus comes, our sorrows 
 will be banished. Our heart aches will go, and 
 everlasting gladness be ours. No more sad 
 hearts, no more depressed spirits, no more long 
 and lonely hours of weeping ! " Weeping may 
 endure for the night, but joy cometh in the 
 morning." As the morning sun dispels the 
 darkness of night, so, when the shining day-star 
 shall shed His beams abroad, the gloom of our 
 past shall be driven eternally away; and we 
 shall go forth and gambol like calves let loose 
 from the stall. 
 
 David, in the Psalms, becomes so enthused at 
 the inspiring thought of the Lord's coming that 
 he calls upon the heavens to rejoice, the earth 
 to be glad, and the sea to roar, in anticipation of 
 so happy an event. He calls upon the fields 
 and the hills to rejoice, and the very floods to 
 clap their hands. 
 
 And it will, indeed, be a time for the voice of 
 rejoicing and salvation to be heard in the tab- 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 109 
 
 ernacles of the righteous. The righteous can be 
 glad. They can rejoice before God, yea, they 
 can rejoice exceedingly. For it is then that 
 "the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and 
 come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy 
 upon their heads ; they shall obtain joy and glad- 
 ness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." 
 " For ye shall go out with joy, and be lead forth 
 with peace ; the mountains and the hills shall 
 break forth before you into singing, and all the 
 trees of the field shall clap their hands." Then 
 can the redeemed ones shout in ecstacy ; " Sing, 
 O, heavens; and be joyful, O, earth ; and break 
 forth into singing, O, mountains ; for the Lord 
 hath comforted His people." 
 
 And now for a moment we would pause to 
 think upon the place in which, when their re- 
 demption comes, the perfected saints shall dwell. 
 When they are made happy by so many bless- 
 ings, rich and full, their joys should not be less- 
 ened by having surroundings that are unworthy 
 and mean . Neither will their joys be so lessened. 
 The Lord will amply provide for them. Their 
 environment will be commensurate to their con- 
 dition and requirements. It will be magnificent 
 indeed. 
 
 Peter, after speaking of the dissolution of the 
 elements and the burning of this old earth, says, 
 "Nevertheless" (that is, notwithstanding the 
 
110 TEE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 earth and the elements have been dissolved and 
 reduced to ashes) " we, according to His promise 
 look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein 
 dwelleth righteousness." Mr. Wesley, com- 
 menting on the " new heavens and new earth " 
 of this passage of Scripture, speaks of them as 
 being " raised, as it were, out of the ashes of the 
 old." Says Milton, 
 
 "The world shall burn, and from her ashes spring 
 New heavens and earth, wherein the just shall dwell. " 
 
 Paul said that "the creation was subjected to 
 vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him 
 who subjected it, in Hope that the creation itself 
 also shall be delivered from the bondage of cor- 
 ruption into the liberty of the glory of the chil- 
 dren of God." Now, as the children of God at 
 the advent of Christ are to be changed from their 
 corrupt condition to a state of perfection (as we 
 have before shown), so the earth in which they 
 have lived is to be delivered also and made glori- 
 ous and fit for their occupancy. The earth was 
 originally cursed when man was cursed. It was 
 so cursed on account of man's sin. And so, 
 when man is redeemed, the curse shall be lifted 
 from the earth also, "by the man Christ Jesus, at 
 His second advent. And so, looking forward 
 to that time, we can say : 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. Ill 
 
 Beneath the curse of briers, weeds, and thorns, 
 Of sorrow, sin, and death, the old earth long- 
 Has lain. By many a pain she oft has been 
 Convulsed, and many were her agonized 
 Contortions ; but now, that Christ has come, they all 
 Are o'er ; and quiet is the breast which oft 
 So painfully did throb. Serenity 
 And calmness now do reign, where all before 
 Commotion was and wanton lack of peace. 
 A change, how great ! o'er all the scene has come. 
 No more does nature frown, but sweetly smiles 
 And clothes herself with beauty unsurpassed 
 And grand. The very air does seem to breathe 
 Of harmony and love : while sweet upon 
 Its perfumed breath delicious odors, such 
 As tend to waft the happy soul into 
 Elysian state, are freely onward borne 
 In pleasing subtilty. The former curse 
 Has been removed. No deserts now are seen; 
 The wilderness is gone; and in their place 
 The flowers bloom, and all is bright and fair. 
 
 And these things shall be brought to pass 
 when Jesus comes. Assuredly that will be a 
 propitious season. Said Dean Alford : " The 
 coming of the Bridegroom is the most joyous 
 day for heaven and earthy the most joyous for 
 the church, the most joyous for every faithful 
 soul. All nature has been earnestly expecting it ; 
 for then, first, shall the wilderness rejoice and 
 blossom as the rose ; then none shall hurt or de- 
 stroy, but the redeemed of the Lord shall come 
 with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads, 
 and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." As 
 the Lord said anciently, "Behold, I create new 
 heavens and a new earth ; and the former shall 
 
112 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 not be remembered nor come into mind. But 
 be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I 
 create ; for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoic- 
 ing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in 
 Jerusalem^ and joy in my people; and the voice 
 of weeping shall be no more heard in her, 
 nor the voice of crying." And John, in pro- 
 phetic vision, saw the sacred city and the earth 
 after it had been renewed. He said : " And I 
 saw a new heaven and a new earth ; for the first 
 heaven and the first earth were passed away ; 
 and there was no more sea. And I John saw 
 the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from 
 God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned 
 for her husband." 
 
 " O, what a morn of glorious jubilee ! The 
 heavens are clad in robes of beauteous col- 
 ors ; the trees are dressed in splendor, and 
 hang with fruits of golden joy ; the rivers in 
 their joy leap on in triumph, while their roll- 
 ing cascades send up to the ear of the uni- 
 verse immortal melodies, and the birds sing in 
 harmony with angelic notes. Then roll out and 
 on and on, ye notes of victorious song, until the 
 distant space of earth shall be filled with notes 
 of praise ! Oh, what a morning of joy is before 
 us ! Call ye the glory of old Sinai's mountain 
 amid the smoking splendor beautiful when God 
 by His angel talked with men? What then will 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 113 
 
 ye call this glorious restitution morning, when 
 the Son of man shall come down the parted 
 skies with all the holy angels with Him? He 
 will utter His voice and all the graveyards of 
 earth will yield up the bodies of the righteous 
 dead ; the sea too, will deliver up my Master' & 
 treasures that are hidden there. Wonderful 
 morn ! See ! Behold the army of God's elect ! 
 They rise to meet the descending king, immortal 
 now, with spiritual bodies like unto Christ's 
 glorious body. Released from the law of gravi- 
 tation, they bask amid the splendors of the uni- 
 verse of God. Again the Lion of Judah cries, 
 and the deserts of this sin-cursed earth rejoice, 
 and bud and blossom as the rose. Behold, the 
 curse departs, the earth becomes an Eden once 
 again, and all God's creatures dwell together in 
 lamb-like harmony. O, blessed will be our lot 
 if we are found among the immortal host of God 
 in that triumphant restitution morning ! — D* C+ 
 Wheeler. 
 
 And on this new earth sweet and clean, and 
 under those new heavens clear and bright, the 
 righteous, with their divine King, shall make 
 their eternal abode. 
 
 After touching eloquently upon the coming of 
 the Lord and the renewal of the earth, M. R. 
 Pheteplace cries out in rapturous tones : " The 
 Almighty King sits upon His throne in splendor. 
 
114 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 Wave after wave of glory flashes far out over 
 the plains of the redeemed earth. Jehovah's 
 oath is fulfilled ; c As I live, saith the Lord, all 
 the earth shall be filled with my glory.' No win- 
 ter. No clouds. No night. No sickness. No 
 pain. No tears. No death. No graveyards. 
 No temptation. No sin. No partings. No 
 time. What waving of palms ! What victory ! 
 What praise ! What rest ! What glory ! Awake, 
 O, morning of splendor ! and bring the promised 
 deliverance." 
 
 Then it is that we shall enter upon our heav- 
 enly rest. How sweet it will be to partake of 
 the enjoyment of that rest for which we oft have 
 longed. O, how weary we have been in this 
 toiling world. How many times have our poor 
 tired brains refused to think. How our poor ex- 
 hausted bodies have felt like dropping by the 
 wayside. How worn out we have become with 
 our toils and worries in a busy, heartless world. 
 How we have longed for needed repose. And 
 how many times have our lagging footsteps been 
 hastened, and our very lives been invigorated by 
 the Hope of the rest that remaineth for the peo- 
 ple of God. And now it has come. O, rest, 
 sweet rest! Now, surely, we "shall dwell in a 
 peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and 
 in quiet resting places." Now we shall hunger 
 no more, neither thirst any more. No longer 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 115 
 
 will the scorching sun smite us, or the wintry 
 blast chill us. Now we shall be led unto living 
 fountains of water, and in the green pastures of 
 glory we shall happily recline. 
 
 Nearly two and a half centuries ago the saint- 
 ly Richard Baxter, while meditating upon the 
 " saint's everlasting rest," cried out in rapture : 
 " O, blessed day ! When I shall rest with God ! 
 When I shall rest in the bosom of my Lord ! 
 When I shall rest in knowing, loving, rejoicing, 
 and praising ! When my perfect soul and body 
 shall together perfectly enjoy the most perfect 
 God ! . . . How near is that most blessed, joyful 
 day ! It comes apace. He that shall come, will 
 come, and will not tarry. Though my Lord 
 seems to delay His coming, yet a little while and 
 He will be here. What is a few hundred years 
 when they are over ? How surely will His sign 
 appear ! How suddenly will he seize upon the 
 careless world, even as the lightning cometh out 
 of the east, and shineth unto the west ! He who 
 is gone hence shall so come. Methinks I hear 
 His trumpet sound ! Methinks I see Him com- 
 ing with clouds and His attendant angels, in 
 majesty and in glory." 
 
 To those who are prepared for this great- 
 est of all events, those who have accepted Christ 
 as their Saviour, who have been cleansed in his 
 blood, have followed in his footsteps, have denied 
 
116 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 self, have taken up the cross, and through evil as 
 well as good report have still continued faithful, 
 the coming of the Lord is that for which they 
 most ardently long. It is the culmination of all 
 their hopes, the consummation of all their desires. 
 When the voice of Jesus, the Redeemer of the 
 race, shall speak to them and say, " Come, ye 
 blessed," what joy will fill their souls, what an 
 entrancing thrill of exquisite bliss will permeate 
 their entire being. How sweet will be that time, 
 how ecstatic that occasion. Surely, "the suffer- 
 ings of this present time are not worthy to be 
 compared with the glory which shall then be 
 revealed." 
 
 THE COMING OF HIS FEET. 
 
 In the crimson of the morning, in the whiteness of the noon, 
 
 In the amber glory of the day's retreat, 
 In the midnight, robed in darkness, or the gleaming of the 
 moon," 
 
 I listen for the coming of His feet. 
 
 I heard his weary footsteps on the sands of Galilee, 
 On the temple's marble pavement, on the street, 
 
 Worn with weight of sorrow, faltering up the slopes of Calvary, 
 The sorrow of the coming of His feet. 
 
 Down the minster-aisles of splendor, from betwixt the cheru- 
 bim, 
 Through the wondering throng, with motion strong and fleet, 
 Sounds His victor tread, approaching with a music far and 
 dim— 
 The music of the coming of His feet. 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 117 
 
 Sandaled not with sheen of silver, girded not with woven gold, 
 Weighted not with shimmering gems and odors sweet, 
 
 But white-winged and shod with glory in the Taborlight of 
 old— 
 The glory of the coming of His feet. 
 
 He is coming, O my spirit ! with his everlasting peace, 
 
 With his blessedness immortal and complete, 
 He is coming, O my spirit ! and his coming brings release, 
 
 I listen for the coming of His feet. — Anon. 
 
118 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE DARK SIDE. 
 
 ; ' Ere long, and Jehovah will come in His power ; 
 Our God will arise, with His foes to contend: 
 Haste, haste thee, O sinner, prepare for that hour; 
 The harvest is passing, the summer will end." 
 
 Until now we have been looking at the better 
 and the brighter side of that momentous event,, 
 the Second Advent of Christ. We have been 
 made happy by the thought of eternal blessed- 
 ness that will then come to the weary, waiting 
 " Church of the Firstborn." But we should be 
 made aware that there is another and darker 
 side to it. All are not Christians. Many have 
 deliberately rejected all offers of mercy. They 
 have bartered all their joyous Hope of a glad 
 " world to come" for the fleshly indulgences and 
 carnal pleasures of " this present evil world." 
 " And, even as they did not like to retain God in 
 their knowledge, God gave them over to a repro- 
 bate mind." They will be wholly unprepared 
 for the great day of God, totally unfitted to 
 stand face to face with the Judge of all the 
 earth. To them the coming of Jesus gives no 
 Hope. Rather does it bring to them a depth of 
 agonizing woe and of unutterable despair. To 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 119 
 
 them " all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land 
 is gone." The time of laughter now is passed. 
 It is now God's time to laugh. And because He 
 has called, and they have refused; because He 
 has stretched out His hand, and no man re- 
 garded ; because they have set at nought all His 
 counsel, and would none of His reproof; — He 
 also will laugh at their calamity, and will mock 
 when their fear cometh ; when their fear cometh 
 as desolation, and their destruction as a whirl- 
 wind, when distress and anguish cometh upon 
 them. In that great day " when God shall judge 
 the secrets of men by Jesus Christ," God's ser- 
 vants shall rejoice, but the wicked shall be 
 ashamed : God's servants shall sing for joy of 
 heart, but the wicked shall cry for sorrow of 
 heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit. 
 " For behold, the Lord cometh out of His place 
 to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their 
 iniquity; the earth also shall disclose her blood, 
 and shall no more cover her slain." 
 
 Let us, for a little while, contemplate the sud- 
 denness and fearfulness of the Advent as it re- 
 gards the wicked. In doing so we first will 
 quote an utterance of the Saviour. 
 
 "For as the lightning cometh out of the east, 
 and shineth even unto the toest, so shall also the 
 coming of the Son of man beP 
 
 Christ here uses the quickness and power of 
 
120 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 the lightning's flash as a figure of His own com- 
 ing. No one would mistake the vivid electric 
 glare for the feeble flickering of a weak candle. 
 So, although some may be deceived by false 
 Christs, yet when the great and only Judge of 
 quick and dead does at last appear, no one, even 
 for a moment, will mistake Him for some lesser 
 would-be light. The greatness, the grandeur, 
 the glory, the unsurpassed and unsurpassable 
 magnificence of His personal presence will be 
 adequate to impress upon all beholders the fact 
 that He is Lord, 
 
 How sublime is a thunder storm at night! 
 How wonderful in its characteristics ; how awful 
 in its gigantic display. At no other time do the 
 clouds appear so black and dense. At no other 
 time does the darkness seem so thick. The eye 
 strives to pierce the black, impenetrable air, but 
 all its efforts are in vain. Then suddenly comes 
 the lightning flash. How instant the change, 
 how sudden and complete the transformation ! 
 Now to the east and to the west, even beyond 
 the utmost range of our strained vision, the illu- 
 mination extends. An entire change takes place 
 in the aspect of things. Blackness flees, and 
 darkness disappears. Light penetrates where a 
 moment before all was obscured by deepest 
 gloom. Objects far and near which before were 
 invisible can now be plainly seen. 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 121 
 
 It would seem as though the fearful magnifi- 
 cence of such an occasion would bring to man 
 a realizing sense of an overruling Power ; and, 
 even though felt at no other time, would give 
 solemn thoughts of a coming Lord and a near- 
 ing judgment. Those lightning flashes, filling 
 the whole heavens with a full flood of dazzling 
 light, are enough to make one think of the 
 future time, " wherein the heavens being on fire 
 shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt 
 with fervent heat." The alarming crash of the 
 rolling, rumbling thunder is sufficient cause to 
 startle one into taking a forward glance at that 
 truly awful time " in the which the heavens shall 
 pass away with a great noise." 
 
 When Jesus comes, the night of sin and the 
 gloom of the curse will be settling even blacker 
 and thicker upon the earth. But from the clouds 
 above a powerful light will suddenly burst. 
 Wonderfully intense will be its brilliancy ! Re- 
 markably penetrating its power ! Nothing is 
 hidden which at that time shall not be revealed. 
 The plans of men, their money-making schemes, 
 their aspirations for earthly fame, their ambitions 
 for worldly power, their heart-filth, their sinful 
 indulgences, their rejections of Christ, their 
 backslidings from God, all will be exposed. In 
 the extremity of their terror men will cry to the 
 mountains and rocks, " Fall on us, and hide us 
 
122 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne, 
 and from the wrath of the Lamb." But though 
 they were to hide themselves beneath ten thous- 
 and mountains, yet they would not be hidden 
 from the piercing gaze of the Lord; for they 
 would be discovered, and an irresistable power 
 would bring them forth to judgment. 
 
 The deepest den of vice will then be pene- 
 trated by the light, and an almighty hand will 
 remove all coverings and concealments. Those 
 crimes which for so many years have been safely 
 locked in the remote chambers of deceitful secre- 
 cy, but which, nevertheless, have been a heavy 
 load upon the conscience, will be open to the all- 
 scrutinizing eye of the great Judge. Those sins 
 in which people have secretly indulged, the 
 knowledge of which they thought was securely 
 hidden within the recesses of their own breast, 
 will then be as manifest as the meridian sun in a 
 cloudless sky. 
 
 How terrible will be that time to some, when in 
 ghastly hideousness their sins are all made bare. 
 The meanness of their doings and the blackness 
 of their hearts will be exposed by divine illumi- 
 nation ; and the divine voice which says, " De- 
 part, ye cursed," will rend their very souls and 
 leave them without the slightest shadow of 
 hope. 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 123 
 
 "O! I shrink, 
 My very soul doth shrink, when I reflect 
 That the time hastens, when in vengeance clothed, 
 Thou shalt come down to stamp the seal of fate 
 On erring mortal man. Thy chariot wheels 
 Then shall rebound to earth's remotest caves, 
 And stormy Ocean from his bed shall start 
 At the appalling summons. O ! how dread* 
 On the dark eye of miserable man, 
 Chasing his sins in secrecy and gloom, 
 Will burst the effulgence of the opening Heaven; 
 When to the brazen trumpet's deafening roar, 
 Thou and thy dazzling cohorts shall descend, 
 Proclaiming the fulfilment of the word ! 
 The dead shall start astonished from their sleep ! 
 The sepulchres shall groan and yield their prey; 
 The bellowing floods shall disembogue their charge 
 
 Of human victims They shall come 
 
 To greet the solemn Advent of the Judge. 
 
 Thou first shalt summon the elected saints 
 
 To their apportioned Heaven ! and thy Son, 
 
 At thy right hand, shall smile with conscious joy 
 
 On all His past distresses, when for them 
 
 He bore humanity's severest pangs. 
 
 Then shalt thou seize the avenging scymitar, 
 
 And, with a roar as loud and horrible 
 
 As the stern earthquake's monitory voice, 
 
 The wicked shall be driven to their abode, 
 
 Down the immitigable gulf .— H. K. White. 
 
 How awful will be that day to the wicked ! 
 How dreadful and how terrible when the earth 
 shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, when the 
 heavens shall roll together like a gigantic scroll, 
 when the thunders of eternity shall mightily re- 
 verberate, and the very elements shall melt with 
 fervency of heat. Of a sudden it will come upon 
 a dreaming, unready world. Even as the wicked 
 
124 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 at the time of the deluge " knew not until the 
 flood came, and took them all away," so an evil 
 world will go to swift destruction at the coming 
 of the Lord. And as " the same day that Lot 
 went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone 
 from heaven and destroyed them all ; even thus 
 shall it be in the day when the Son of man is 
 revealed." " Then shall he burst upon an apa- 
 thetic and drowsy world with a grandeur sur- 
 passing the brightness of suns, and with a footfall 
 drowning the reverberation of thunder. He who 
 once dawned on mankind as silently and gradu- 
 ally as the morning, shall at last break forth as 
 suddenly and swiftly as lightnings that gleam 
 and flash from sky to sky." With what an 
 agony of fear will the breasts of the wicked be 
 filled on that dreadful day " when the Lord Jesus 
 shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty 
 angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them 
 that know not God, and that obey not the gospel 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ : who shall be punished 
 with everlasting destruction from the presence 
 of the Lord, and from the glory of His power." 
 Surely to them ' that day is a day of wrath, a 
 day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness 
 and desolation, a day of darkness and gloomi- 
 ness.' "And the loftiness of man shall be 
 bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall 
 be made low : and the Lord alone shall be ex- 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 125 
 
 alted in that day. And they shall go into the 
 holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the 
 earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory 
 of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake ter- 
 ribly the earth." 
 
 I trust that the words of this chapter shall not 
 fall upon unheeding ears. Ifftthou, reader, art 
 an unsaved person I pray they may burn a way 
 into thy very heart, till thou shalt deeply real- 
 ize that " the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both 
 with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land des- 
 olate ; and He shall destroy the sinners thereof 
 out of it." May the Spirit of the Lord so trouble 
 thee that thou mayest take no rest till thou art 
 constrained to "flee from the wrath to come," 
 and to "prepare to meet thy God." If Jesus 
 comes and finds thee in thy sins, thou shalt be cut 
 off forever from all Hope. The glad glories of 
 eternity will not be thine to enjoy. When He 
 comes those who are ready will go in, and the 
 door will be shut. Then those who are without 
 must remain without eternally. Dost thou 
 desire to be one' of them? Shut out of the king- 
 dom of God ! How awful ! Shut out from the 
 bliss of that happy place ! Better for thee hadst 
 thou never been born ! Shut out from the blest 
 society of the saints and the Saviour ! O, how 
 much thou hast lost! To take thy place with 
 the " devil and his angels !" How wretched thy 
 
126 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 condition ! To go with them to the pit of de- 
 struction ! How dreadful thy fate ! To be 
 " destroyed," "burned up," to come " to nought;" 
 to be cut off from joy and peace and Hope ; to be 
 cut off from life itself ! How fearful thy end ! 
 
 But it need not be so with thee. Thou 
 mayest go to Jesus, and, casting thy poor, sinful, 
 contrite self at His blessed feet, be received by 
 Him, and in His precious blood have all thy sins 
 washed away. And thus, being made free from 
 sin, and living a life of holy purity, thou shalt 
 have "boldness in the day of judgment;" thou 
 mayest be presented " faultless before the pres- 
 ence of His glory with exceeding joy." 
 
 And now in closing this chapter I would tell 
 of a dream I once had. It may impress others 
 even as it impressed me. 
 
 I dreamed that I was out of doors in the open 
 country. Suddenly the thunder began to roll, 
 and the lightning began to play. I, and those 
 who were with me (for it seems that I was not 
 alone), fearing that we were to have a thunder 
 shower, started for the house in order that we 
 might be sheltered. When we drew near to the 
 house we noticed something in the yard that 
 needed to be covered so that it might be pro- 
 tected from the storm. So I began to cover it 
 with a cloth that was lying there. While thus 
 engaged I was startled by hearing shrieks of 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 127 
 
 fright and the agonized cries of those who were 
 greatly terrified. And then, for the first time, 
 I noticed that the thunder was not ordinary 
 thunder, and the lightning was not ordinary 
 lightning. It sounded as though the whole sky 
 were cracking and breaking ; and the light did 
 not come in intermittent flashes, but was con- 
 tinuous. Then I heard someone say, in a tone of 
 awe, "It is the judgment." A sudden terror 
 seized me. I was taken with the fearful fright 
 that was being expressed by the outcries of oth- 
 ers. What a solemn awe came over me ! What 
 a feeling, from head to foot, of inexpressible 
 agony ! What an anguish in my heart ! I was 
 overcome, petrified! 
 
 Then a thought seemed to come to me. And 
 with the thought came peace. The fear disap- 
 peared, and in its place came quietness of mind. 
 A calmness, as great as before had been the ter- 
 ror, now took possession of me. I lifted my 
 calm face to the heavens. They were all cracked 
 open. Great seams and rents were running 
 through them in all directions. They were still 
 parting asunder, and were aglow with a many- 
 colored light. Behind those heavens I certainly 
 thought was the Son of God coming to judge 
 the world. Yet in that moment of terror, with 
 uplifted head and with calm assurance, I simply 
 said, "Dear Jesus, I am thine." 
 
128 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 This is the dream. And now that I have relat- 
 ed the dream, I will bring to your notice some 
 things that are taught in God's Word. 
 
 I read that " the day of the Lord will come as 
 a thief in the night." Now, then, how does a 
 thief come ? Unexpectedly. So also will come 
 the day of the Lord ; when people are busy with 
 other matters, or, perhaps, when they are sleep- 
 ing. Yes, u when they say, Peace and safety ; 
 then sudden destruction cometh upon them." 
 
 I find out that the heavens " shall perish ; " 
 that they all shall wax old as doth a garment ; 
 and as a vesture shalt Thou [Christ] fold them 
 up, and they shalt be changed." " The heavens 
 and the earth . . . are kept in store, reserved un- 
 to fire against the clay of judgment and perdition 
 of ungodly men." "The heavens shall vanish 
 away like smoke." "The heavens shall pass 
 away with a great noise?' 
 
 John, the disciple dearly beloved, he who, at 
 the Last Supper, had the ineffable joy of reclin- 
 ing his head upon the Saviour's breast, was given, 
 in his old age, a view of things that were fut- 
 ure. And among other things that were passed 
 in surprising vision before him he " saw a great 
 white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose 
 face the earth and the heaven fled away; and 
 there was found no place for them." 
 
 The day of the Lord most surely is coming. 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 12& 
 
 The Son of God is to return to this earth. " The 
 Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a 
 shout." " It is He [Jesus] which was ordained 
 of God to be the Judge of the quick and dead.' T 
 He shall judge them "at His appearing." 
 
 When He comes to '< judge the world with 
 righteousness," He will come in the clouds. 
 " For behold, He cometh with clouds, and every 
 eye shall see Him." He will come like the light- 
 ning. " For as the lightning cometh out of the 
 east, and shineth even unto the west ; so shall 
 also the coming of the Son of Man be." 
 
 In that awful day " when the Son of Man shall 
 come in His glory, and all the holy angels with 
 Him ;" when " He shall sit upon the throne of 
 His glory, and before Him shall be gathered all 
 nations ; " when " He shall separate them one 
 from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep 
 from the goats," — how, O, reader, will you stand ? 
 When " the great day of His wrath is come, who 
 shall be able to stand ? " 
 
 When the thunders of judgment are rolling, 
 when " the heavens pass away with a great noise," 
 when the sky is aglow with the glory of His 
 presence; O, reader, how then will you feel? 
 Will you be able to endure the test ? Will you 
 then be able to do in reality what I did in my 
 dream ? Can you then, in that time of terror, 
 in that day of troubled minds, in that day of 
 
130 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 anguished hearts ; can you, O, can you lift up 
 your face to the rending skies and toward the 
 coming Judge, and say, with sweet assurance 
 and with joy supreme, " Dear Jesus, I am thine ?" 
 If in that day you are His, all is well. If not 
 His, O how terrible it will be ! 
 
 Dear sinner friend, dear unsaved one, you are 
 unready for that day. But why not get ready? 
 The hand of mercy is extended to you. The 
 dear Saviour wants to be your Saviour. Today 
 He speaks to you the warning word. Will you 
 not hear it? Even now he reaches to you His 
 helping hand. Will you not grasp it? O, take 
 hold of Him by faith. Flee to Him with your 
 sin and guilt. Tell Him all about it. Confess it 
 to Him. Ask Him for pardon, for peace. Cast 
 yourself upon His mercy. Give yourself entire- 
 ly to Him. Leave behind you your sins and 
 your evil habits. Obey Him, live for Him. 
 And then, " when He shall appear, you may 
 have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him 
 at His coming." Tou will be able to look up 
 and say, " Dear Jesus, I am thine." 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 131 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 CONDITION OF THE WORLD BEFORE THE ADVENT. 
 
 " When the wicked are multiplied, transgression increaseth ; 
 "but the righteous shall see their fall." Prov. 29 : 16. 
 
 "When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the 
 earth?" Luke 18: 8. 
 
 The Lord Jesus is coming. There can be no 
 doubt of it. We know not when the time shall 
 be ; but the question often arises, What will be 
 the condition of the world when the Saviour 
 comes in judgment ? or rather, what will be its 
 condition just prior to that event? Will the 
 world increase in peace, in purity, in happiness ; 
 or will its course be a downward one ? Will 
 the world become better? or will it become more 
 sinful, more corrupt, more defiant in its wicked- 
 ness? Will the world be converted to God be- 
 fore Jesus comes? or will people depart from 
 the true faith and become more infidel, more 
 skeptical? Will the Church gain a complete vic- 
 tory over the world? or will the world assert a 
 power of attraction over the Church that will 
 have the tendency to drag the Church down to 
 the world's level ? Will the nominal Church be- 
 come purer and more spiritual as time pro- 
 gresses? or will she leave her first love and join 
 
132 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 in gay flirtation with the world? In fine, will 
 the world as a whole become better or worse 
 before the Advent of Christ? 
 
 This is a queer world. It is filled with peo- 
 ple who are peculiar, and with ideas that are 
 even more so. There are many things that sur- 
 prise us, and many also that cause us grief. And 
 among other things that surprise us is this : that 
 ministers of the gospel, who ought to know bet- 
 ter, will preach for gospel truth that the world 
 is improving morally ; and that, as time contin- 
 ues, it will increase in righteousness yet more. 
 Another thing that surprises us is that people, 
 notwithstanding the evidences of Scripture, of 
 statistics, and of their own senses, will believe it 
 to be so. 
 
 It is not pleasant to think that, while the 
 world is making such amazing progress in so 
 many departments, — in scientific discovery, in 
 general knowledge, in educational facilities, in 
 manufacturing ability, in modes of travel and 
 transit, etc. — it is not pleasant to think that 
 morally the race is not advancing. We do not 
 revel in the thought. It is not of the kind to in- 
 spire joyous emotions. To know it is sad in 
 the extreme. But know it we must; not be- 
 cause we desire it to be so, but because it is so. 
 It is a fact, and if it is a fact we ought to know 
 it ; and knowing it, we should acknowledge it* 
 
THE CB OWNING HOPE. 133 
 
 We should not, simply because it is unpleasant, 
 thrust it from us. It were cowardly so to do. 
 But if it be true we should face it, and not turn 
 our backs to it. We must confront it like true 
 men. 
 
 It is not surprising to us that the world is not 
 becoming better. But it is surprising that peo- 
 ple should be so deceived as to think that, in this 
 direction, great improvement were being made ; 
 that people should think that men are nobler 
 and more honorable ; that women are purer and 
 more modest ; that children are better behaved, 
 and more respectful to their parents and to the 
 aged. 
 
 We are not surprised, I say, that the world is 
 growing more corrupt. Indeed we should be 
 surprised if it were not so. The great God, who 
 " knew the end from the beginning," who could 
 see beforehand what course sinful men would 
 pursue when allowed to follow their oion incli- 
 nations^ has told us in His prophetic word to ex- 
 pect such things as we see and know. So it 
 does not astonish us to see that condition of af- 
 fairs come to pass which God's word teaches us 
 to expect. God has told us in advance many 
 things that would take place in the heavens and 
 on the earth. Many of these things have already 
 had their fulfilment, and in just the manner as 
 was predicted. God's prophecies are true. And 
 
134 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 as it was foretold that " wicked men and sedu- 
 cers shall wax worse and worse " in the " last 
 days," the condition of the world and the wick- 
 edness of man is what we are to expect. It is 
 our intention, therefore, to show what is the true 
 condition of things. In doing so we may be 
 obliged to disagree with opinions which, by some, 
 may have been held for a long time. But we 
 trust that, with carefulness and candor, you will 
 consider what is here set forth ; that you will 
 not allow notions previously held to block the 
 way of truths, and that prejudice may not be 
 permitted to blind the eyes of your mind. 
 " Truth shines more clearly when closely tested ; 
 and, as error is of no value, it should be pointed 
 out and discarded. This is a part of Christian 
 duty." 
 
 I desire to show, first, what is taught by the 
 the Word of God. I have profound respect for 
 the Bible. To me what the Bible teaches is " an 
 end of all strife." I bow humbly to its doc- 
 trines, and meekly submit to its teachings. Are 
 you ready to do the same ? 
 
 Does the Bible teach that the world is to grow 
 better as time progresses? Does it teach that 
 great moral improvement is to take place as we 
 draw near to the end of the gospel dispensation ; 
 near to the close of this world's history ; near to 
 the time when the Son of God shall return from 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 135 
 
 heaven? No, it does not! Men teach it, I 
 know. But men have been mistaken before ; 
 and there are many who, on this subject, are 
 mistaken now. Men may preach that the world 
 is to become better, but they preach wrong. 
 That is their idea, and not a Bible doctrine. 
 Many appear to have an idea that before Jesus 
 comes the world is to be converted, but we have 
 seen nothing in the Bible to warrant such a con- 
 clusion, while we have seen much to warrant an 
 opposite view. 
 
 What, allow me to ask, was the condition of 
 the world just prior to the Flood? Did the 
 world then possess a high moral tone? Was 
 uprightness, integrity, and purity, the order of 
 the day? Had the world, from the time that 
 Adam and Eve were driven from Eden, made 
 great progression morally ? We trow not. The 
 people had gone downward rather than upward. 
 They had become worse rather than better. 
 They were lower rather than higher, more de- 
 based and bestial rather than more refined and 
 spiritual. Instead of being nearer to God, they 
 had widened the distance between themselves 
 and Deity. They had become so excessively 
 vile that God would not allow them to wallow 
 any longer in the filthiness of their own corrup- 
 tion. And it was for this reason that they were 
 blotted out by the destroying deluge. 
 
136 TEE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 What saith the Scripture as to their condi- 
 tion ? " And God saw that the wickedness of 
 man was great in the earth, and that every imag- 
 ination of the thought of his heart was only evil 
 continually." Not only were they outwardly 
 lawless, but their inward part was very wicked- 
 ness. So exceedingly vile where they that " it 
 repented the Lord that He had made man on 
 the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart." 
 u The earth also was corrupt before God, and 
 the earth was filled with violence. And God 
 looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was cor- 
 rupt ; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon 
 the earth."' So we can easily see from the Bible 
 what was the state of the people at that time, 
 and what was their standing before God. But 
 what has that to do with us, and with our times ? 
 It has much to do, as it shows us what to expect. 
 It is said that " history repeats itself." This is 
 especially true of the history of wickedness. 
 
 Let us see what the Saviour said about it. In 
 Luke 17 : 26, we read : " And as it came to pass 
 in the days of Noah, even so shall it be also in 
 the days of the Son of man." These are the 
 words of Jesus. Our salvation depends upon 
 our belief in Him. We must, therefore, believe 
 what He says. And He does not here teach 
 that, before His second appearing, the state of 
 the world is to be greatly improved. He teaches 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 137 
 
 the exact opposite. In the days before the flood 
 the people did not give heed to the voice of 
 Noah, who was " a preacher of righteousness," 
 but, unheedful of the admonitions of warning, 
 they went on in their own ways. They were 
 eating and drinking, feasting and frolicking, 
 marrying and giving in marriage, sinning and 
 refusing to obey God ; and destruction came sud- 
 denly upon them. " They knew not until the 
 flood came, and took them all away. So shall 
 the coming of the Son of man beP The people 
 will not be living righteously and be joyously 
 awaiting His appearing ; but, unmindful of warn- 
 ings, will be living in their sins, and so shall 
 " that day come upon them unawares." If it 
 was very wicked in the days of Noah, and is to 
 be in Christ's day as it was then, it surely will be 
 very wicked when our Lord shall return. If we 
 believe what Jesus has said, there is no escaping 
 this conclusion. It is inevitable. This doesn't 
 look like the conversion of the world, does it ? 
 
 What was the condition of Sodom and of 
 Gomorrah before their fiery judgment ? " Their 
 sin was very great." They were " giving them- 
 selves over to fornication, and going after strange 
 flesh." "Pride, and fullness of bread, and abun- 
 dance of idleness, was in her (Sodom) and in her 
 daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand 
 of the poor and needy." " They were haughty, 
 
138 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 and committed abomination " before the Lord. 
 So abominably low had they become in their 
 morals (and yet how high they were in their 
 haughty self-conceit) that Lot, " that righteous 
 man dwelling among them, in seeing and hear- 
 ing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day 
 with their unlawful deeds.' 9 ' " The men of Sod- 
 om were wicked and sinners before the Lord 
 exceedingly." 
 
 So will it be when the Lord comes to judge 
 the world. Some, because of their righteous- 
 ness, will be prepared. But the majority will be 
 vile, impure, sinning against God with a high 
 hand; and, at the same time, will be proud, 
 haughty, lifted up, self-conceited, self-righteous, 
 self-sufficient; and, as a consequence, all un- 
 ready. So accustomed are they to go on in their 
 sins unreproved that they fondly imagine they 
 are all right. But the truth is, they are all wrong. 
 O, may those whose duty it is to preach the word 
 of God awaken to the fact of their responsibility, 
 and " resprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long- 
 suffering and doctrine." " Cry aloud, spare not, 
 lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my 
 people their transgressions, and the house of 
 Jacob their sins." 
 
 In Timothy 4: 1, we read; "Now the Spirit 
 speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some 
 shall depart from the faith, giving heed to sedu- 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 139 
 
 ring spirits and doctrines of devils." This scrip- 
 ture may not shadow forth the very "last days," 
 but it does speak of the "latter times." It 
 means times later than when it was written, in 
 days which to Paul were future, in times subse- 
 quent to his time. And it shows a departure 
 from the true faith rather than obedience to it. 
 " Some shall depart from the faith." " For the 
 time will come when they will not endure sound 
 doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they 
 heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears ; 
 and they shall turn away their ears from the 
 truth, and shall be turned unto fables. " (2 Tim. 
 4 : 3-4). This doesn't look^as if such great ad- 
 vancement were expected to be made along the 
 line of true gospel salvation, that, in course of 
 time, the world would be converted. When 
 people "give heed to seducing spirits and 
 doctrines of devils," we cannot confidently ex- 
 pect much of an improvement. When Spirit- 
 ism and Devilism abound, we cannot look for 
 advancement in righteousness under it. 
 
 Again the Scriptures teach us by Peter, that 
 " there shall come in the last days scoffers, 
 walking after their own lusts." Now a scoffer 
 is not a true Christian surely, and. those who 
 walk after their own lusts are not likely to be very 
 holy men. " To walk after one's own lusts, is to 
 be thoroughly selfish — to gratify the natural 
 
140 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 passions, lusts and appetites, which the coming 
 of a retributive judgment would suddenly stop 
 and punish. This does not look as if great 
 moral progress were expected, but rather the 
 other extreme. 
 
 And the Saviour himself tells us that " be- 
 cause iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall 
 wax cold." Iniquity shall abound] not grow 
 less and less as we might wish, but be on every 
 side, among all grades of society, in the world 
 and in the Church. It " shall abound," become 
 more abundant, so much so that the love which 
 many had for God will grow cold ; they will 
 turn away in their hearts and in their lives; 
 they will mingle in the iniquity and frivolity of 
 the worldly ones, instead of loving the Lord 
 with all their hearts, and being a people separate 
 from sin, a "peculiar people, zealous of good 
 works." They will be in the condition of the 
 Church of Laodicea, as recorded in Rev. 3d chap. 
 " I know thy works, that thou art neither cold 
 nor hot : I would thou wert cold or hot. So 
 then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither 
 cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth." 
 
 c< Iniquity shall abound ; " not be something 
 that is comparatively scarce ; not something that 
 is practiced by the exceptional few ; not be the 
 exception, but rather the rule. It shall " abound." 
 It will be very plenteous. There will not be a 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 141 
 
 famine of iniquity, but there will be a great crop ; 
 the harvest will be abundant. It will bring forth 
 largely, and be greatly multiplied. It shall 
 " abound ; " not die out, and become extinct ; but 
 it shall be very prolific, and shall increase great- 
 ly. The " tares " will grow until the harvest, 
 and the harvest is not to be until " the end of the 
 world." And, until then, we may anticipate 
 that " iniquity shall abound," and all the more so 
 the nearer we get to the end. 
 
 And again we turn to the Book of inspiration, 
 and find these words recorded : " But know 
 this, that in the last days grievous times shall 
 come. For men shall be lovers of self, lovers of 
 money, boastful, haughty, railers, disobedient to 
 parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural af- 
 fection, implacable, slanderers, without self-con- 
 trol, fierce, no lovers of good, traitors, head- 
 strong, puffed-up, lovers of pleasure rather than 
 lovers of God ; holding a form of godliness, but 
 having denied the power thereof; from these 
 also turn away." (2 Tim. 3 : 1-5. R. V). 
 
 * O, what a catalogue of evil ! What is the world 
 coming to ? And yet this is what we are to ex- 
 pect. We are not told to surmise this, or to 
 suppose it ; we are told to " know " it. And 
 what we know from God's word we do not have 
 to guess it. We are not to build up opposing 
 theories because to us they might be more pleas- 
 
142 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 ing ; but, as Christians, we are to receive our in- 
 structions from the Bible. And we are not there 
 informed that the world is to grow better and 
 better, but we are told that " evil men and se- 
 ducers shall wax worse and woese, deceiving and 
 being deceived." (2 Tim. 3 : 13.) 
 
 If there were in the Bible nothing bearing on 
 this subject save that chapter from which we 
 have last quoted, it seems as if that would be 
 sufficient to convince anyone who is not of a 
 skeptical turn of mind. But, of course, if 
 people are skeptical, if they do not believe the 
 revelation that God has given, it makes no differ- 
 ence how many Scriptures may teach a certain 
 thing ; they will not believe. But of those who 
 believe the Bible, and who accept it as a teacher 
 of doctrine, we expect better things. It is ex- 
 pected of them to bow in deference to what God 
 has caused to be written, whether it has been 
 repeated time and again, or whether it has 
 been given but once. To such as prefer 
 God's truth to the ideas of men, then this one 
 chapter which so plainly and so unmistakably 
 sets forth what the condition of the world is to 
 be, and when it also settles it chronologically, by 
 saying that it is to be in the "last days," this one 
 chapter would be sufficient. And so ought it to 
 be. But when we do not depend upon one por- 
 tion of the Bible alone, but have " precept upon 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 143 
 
 precept, line upon line, here a little and there a 
 little," the most skeptical ought to be convinced. 
 
 Much more Scriptute could be brought, but 
 we forbear. We have used sufficient to show 
 conclusively that we are to look for a worse 
 state of things rather than a better ; that al- 
 though men may improve educationally, etc., 
 yet, so far as their moral condition is concerned, 
 there is to be no such improvement. 
 
 And right here allow me to quote from the 
 " Teaching of the Twelve Apostles." I do not 
 quote it as having the authority of Scripture, 
 but as that which may have its appropriate 
 weight. " For in the last days false prophets 
 and corrupters shall be multiplied, and the sheep 
 shall be turned into wolves, and love shall t)e 
 turned into hate ; for as lawlessness waxeth, men 
 will hate one another, persecute and betray, and 
 then will appear the world-seducer, like the Son 
 of God, and he will do signs and miracles, and the 
 earth will be given into his hands, and he will 
 do iniquities that have never been done from the 
 beginning. Then the human creation shall come 
 into the firing of trial, and many shall be made 
 to stumble and shall perish, but they that abide 
 in their faith shall be saved from this curse." 
 
 WHAT OTHERS SAY. 
 
 We have shown from the Scripture what 
 course the world is traveling. We have shown 
 
144 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 what will be the tendency of the times in the 
 "last days," the days immediately preceding the 
 coming of Christ. We have shown that we need 
 not look for the conversion* of the world, need 
 not look for it to become better, but rather that 
 its moral progress is downward. And now we 
 purpose to give the opinions of others, those 
 whose words are more weighty than ours ; those 
 who are students of the Holy Bible, and who 
 themselves are holy men. Give heed to what 
 they say. Let us learn of them. 
 
 H. L. Hastings, in " Important Truths/ 5 lays 
 down this proposition : " This world will never 
 be converted to God by the preaching of the gos- 
 pel, but will continue perverse and ungodly, per- 
 secuting the people of God till Christ shall come 
 again the second time." He first supports this 
 by Scripture, and then gives the following : 
 
 "Proof from the faith of the church. 
 Sennas says : " This world is as the winter to 
 the righteous men, because they are not known, 
 but dwell among sinners ; but the world to come 
 is as summer to them." Justin Martyr, A. D. 
 150, said: "The princes of this world . . . will 
 not cease from killing and persecuting those that 
 call on the name of Christ, till He shall come 
 again, and destroy them all, and render to every 
 man according to his deserts." Tertidlian says : 
 "Truth wonders not at her own condition. 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 145 
 
 She knows that she is a sojourner upon earth ; 
 that she must find enemies among strangers^ 
 that her origin, her home, her hopes, her dignities, 
 are placed in heaven." Said Chrysostom : 
 " The gospel of the kingdom shall be preached 
 in all the world for a witness unto all nations, 
 and then shall the end come. Attend with care 
 to what is said. He said not when it hath been 
 believed by all men, but when it hath been 
 preached to all. For this cause He also said : 
 'for a witness to the nations,' to show that He 
 doth not wait for all men to believe, and then 
 for Him to come; since the phrase, 'for a wit- 
 ness ' hath this meaning, — for accusation, for re- 
 proof, for condemnation of them that have not 
 believed." Calvin, on Matt. 24: 30, says: 
 "There is no reason why any person should ex- 
 pect the conversion of the world, for at length 
 (when it will be too late and will yield them no 
 advantage) they shall look on Him whom they 
 have pierced." Luther, on John 10 : 11-16> 
 says : " Some in explaining this passage say, 
 that before the latter days all the world shall be- 
 come Christains. This is a falsehood forged by 
 Satan, that he might darken sound doctrine, that 
 we might not rightly understand it. Beware, 
 therefore, of this delusion." Said Zwingli: 
 " We cannot make a heaven upon earth, — and 
 Christ has taught us that we must let the tares 
 
146 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 grow up along with the wheat." David Par- 
 ens, 1590, said; "It is a thing never to be looked 
 for, that the whole earth shall become Chris - 
 tain ; since the enemies of the church, together 
 with Antichrist, shall not cease but at the last 
 coming of Christ." John Knox, A. D. 1550, 
 speaks of Christ's coming, " to reform the face 
 of the whole earth, which never was, nor yet 
 shall be, till that righteous King and Judge ap- 
 pear for the restoration of all things." 
 
 Says C. U. Spurgeon: "Everything is heaving, 
 and tossing, and yeasting. The world is like the 
 troubled sea which cannot rest; its waters cast 
 up mire and dirt. ... In the long run truth 
 will prevail. And yet it strikes the thoughtful 
 observer that the coming of the Lord Jesus is 
 far more the Hope of the church than any rem- 
 edial processes, or evolutions, or progresses 
 among mankind. Under some aspects the world 
 grows better, but in the deepest and most sol- 
 emn sense, evil men and seducers ' wax worse 
 and worse.' " 
 
 And next we will hear from the great evange- 
 list, D. L. Moody. He needs no introduction. He 
 is well and widely known. God has wonderfully 
 used him. Let him be again used here. He 
 says : " A great many say : ( This doctrine of 
 the second coming of Christ cannot affect me. 
 He can't come in my day. A great many things 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 147 
 
 have got to take place before he comes. The 
 thousand years of the millennium have got to 
 come before he does.' That is just the way I 
 used to talk. ' Why,' I used to say, ' He can't 
 come in my day. Don't you know that there 
 is to be one thousand years of the millennium ; 
 that righteousness must increase and wickedness 
 must decrease before he comes?' Ah, my 
 friends, but since I have got a little better ac- 
 quainted with the Word of God, I find that is 
 not God's plan : that is not what is taught here. 
 Why, just see what he says : c This know also, 
 that in the last days perilous times shall come.' 
 That doesn't sound like the millennium, does it? 
 'For men shall be lovers of their own selves, 
 covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedi- 
 ent to parents, unthankful, unholy.' c Boasters.' 
 There is some boasting done here in Boston. 
 4 Without natural affection, truce-breakers, false 
 accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those 
 that are good. Traitors, heady, high-minded, 
 lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.' I 
 think we are coming pretty near those days now. 
 .... The fact is, my friends, the world is going 
 to destruction ; and what God wants is to have 
 us come out from it." 
 
 And again he says : " Some people say, ' I 
 believe Christ will come on the other side of the 
 millennium.' Where do you get it? I cannot find 
 
14S THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 it. The word of God nowhere tells me to watch 
 and wait for the coming of the millennium, but 
 for the coming of the Lord. I do not find any 
 place where God says the world is to grow better 
 and better, and that Christ is to have a spiritual 
 reign on the earth of a thousand years. I find 
 that the world is to grow worse and worse, and 
 at length there is to be a separation. Two 
 women grinding at a mill, one taken and the 
 other left; two men in one bed, one taken and 
 the other left. (Luke 17 : 34, 36.)" And again, 
 " just as judgment overtook Belshazzar carous- 
 ing at his feast, so will judgment come suddenly 
 and swiftly upon the world revelling in its sins" 
 Next we give the words of Geo. Miiller, of 
 Bristol, Eng. He says : u During the present 
 dispensation, before the return of our Lord, 
 Satan will not be bound : therefore sin and open 
 wickedness will continue to the end of it ; and 
 instead of becoming better, things according to 
 Scripture, will become worse and worse. It is 
 impossible to shut one's eyes to the fearful wick- 
 edness now around us everywhere; for murders 
 of the most cruel character, and numerous other 
 atrocious crimes are, even in this enlightened 
 nineteenth century, continually being committed." 
 And during the same discourse he said : " Are 
 we, then, to expect things around us will grad- 
 ually improve, or rather, that as we approach 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 149 
 
 the end of the age the darker they will become ? 
 True it is that one day, ' The earth will be filled 
 with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters 
 cover the sea ; " but this will never be until Jesus 
 himself comes. In the meantime lawlessness will 
 increase." 
 
 Eld. E. A. Stockman, the able editor of the 
 World's Crisis, is a man of comprehensive abil- 
 ity. His opinion on this subject will be of value. 
 The following is from his pen : " The uniform 
 statement of the Bible is that the world will be 
 fearfully wicked at the time of Christ's coming. 
 
 c And He said : Go thy way, Daniel, for the 
 words are closed up and sealed till the time of 
 the end. Many shall be purified, and made 
 white, and tried ; but the wicked shall do wick- 
 edly ; and none of the wicked shall understand ; 
 but the wise shall understand.' (Daniel 12: 9, 
 10.) This text occurs at the close of the pro- 
 phecy of Daniel, which runs down to the end of 
 time, and describes most clearly the condition 
 of society just previous to our Lord's appearing. 
 1 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse 
 and worse, deceiving and being deceived.' 
 (2 Timothy 3:13.) This text precludes the idea 
 so popular, that the world is growing better, or 
 that it ever will be any better. It positively 
 asserts that wicked men will become more and 
 more wicked as we near the end. And this is 
 
150 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 the teaching of the whole Bible on this subject. 
 ' Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of 
 the sea ! for the devil is come down unto you, 
 having great wrath, because he knoweth that he 
 hath but a short time.' (Rev. 12 : 12.) The 
 devil's reign being limited to the period of pro- 
 bation, as he sees the final hour approaching he 
 will exert all his wonderful skill to the utmost. 
 This will be seen in the unparalleled wickedness of 
 men. Carnal human nature will be set on fire by 
 Satan for the perpetration of the most revolting 
 abominations and wickedness. c By swearing, 
 and lying, and killing, and stealing, and commit- 
 ting adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth 
 blood. Therefore shall the land mourn, and 
 every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, 
 with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of 
 heaven ; yea, the fishes of the sea shall also be 
 taken away.' (Hosea4:2, 3.) This is a pro- 
 phetic view of the culmination of human wick- 
 edness just prior to the opening of God's terrible 
 judgment day. One would think that Hosea 
 must have uttered these words from the centre of 
 some of our modern cities. ' But 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, marry- 
 ing and giving in marriage, until the day that 
 Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 151 
 
 flood came and took them all away ; so shall also 
 the coming of the Son of man be.' (Matt. 
 24 : 37-39.) These are the Saviour's own words, 
 who saw the end from the beginning. The state- 
 ment of this text is, that as great and terrible 
 wickedness prevailed just before the old world 
 was destroyed by water, so will great wicked- 
 ness prevail just before the present world will be 
 destroyed by fire.'' 
 
 From the Hoston Herald of December 1, 1890, 
 I clip the following, it being from a condensed 
 report of a sermon by Fr. Ignatius. " There are 
 two things that are given as signs of Christ's 
 second coming, and when we observe them we 
 must be on the alert. 'One is that wicked 
 men should wax noisier, atheism should be en- 
 throned, and the nations disturbed by wars and 
 rumors of wars. The other indication is the 
 doctrine of the true religion. Christianity shall 
 fade out like a dissolving view; worship shall 
 have the form, but lack the essence of godliness. 
 As we see in the arming of the nations of the 
 earth, in the revolution of religious thought, in 
 the wickedness of the times, indications that the 
 time of Christ's coming may be near, it is our 
 duty as Christians to look and prepare for His 
 appearing." 
 
 From the ready pen of that thoughtful scholar, 
 D. T. Taylor, we get these words : " The moral 
 
152 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 course of the age is set forth as evil; it is a 
 mixed one, good and evil were to contend for 
 the mastery. As the last days came on, light 
 and knowledge were to spread world-wide by 
 means of the gospel, but the nearing end was to 
 witness everywhere a reproduction of the care- 
 less, pleasure-loving, sinful security of the days 
 of Noah and Lot, and mankind be quite aban- 
 doned, as prior to the flood, to unrestrained lux- 
 urious epicureanism, the delights of the table and 
 of married life, to building and field work, 
 and the engrossing and absorbing of all minds in 
 sinful excess and forgetfulness of God, until the 
 very end and the coming of the Son of God." 
 
 Next we quote from Eld. I. C. Welcome : 
 " The closing scenes of probationary time and the 
 harvest of the world are so fully described and 
 clearly stated in the Bible, that all who will 
 study and believe its statements will be kept 
 from the delusive idea of the conversion of the 
 masses of our race to Christ, or of universal 
 peace in this world. ' For after that in the wis- 
 dom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, 
 it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching 
 to save them that believe.' 1 Cor. 1: 21. 'This 
 gospel of the kingdom ' is c preached in all the 
 world for a witness to all nations; and then 
 shall the end come.' Matt. 24 : 14. God has 
 ' visited the Gentiles, to take out of them a peo- 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 153 
 
 pie for his name.' The dosing days of this 
 world are to be as those of Noah, and those of 
 Lot, — the masses unbelieving, unrighteous, cor- 
 rupt, ungovernable. Luke 17 : 26-28. Jude 7. 
 They are to be gathered out, as tares from the 
 wheat. Matt. 13 ; 40-41. Zeph. 3 : 8. Psalms 
 2 : 8-9. Then Christ, with his people, the re- 
 deemed from among men, will reign on the 
 throne of David, in the restored, renewed earth ; 
 when ' the meek will inherit the earth and de- 
 light themselves in the abundance of peace.' 
 Let this be our Hope." 
 
 The following we extract from a sermon by 
 G. R. Kramer. " It is taught by some that this 
 world must be converted before the second ad- 
 vent of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ. Is it not strange, then, that the apostle 
 Paul, in writing to the churches, did not place 
 before them as a hope, the conversion of the 
 world ? But he always referred to the coming 
 of Christ, and pictured no golden age between 
 the apostolic age and the coming of the Lord 
 Jesus. It was darkness ; it was affliction ; it 
 was distress ; it was persecution of the most tre- 
 mendous kind. Everywhere he holds before the 
 church as the only gorgeous prospect, the re- 
 turn of the blessed Jesus from the heavenly 
 places. This idea of the conversion of the world 
 was not taught in the apostolic age. The apos- 
 
154 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 ties told the churches that the church must 
 struggle, that the church must weep, that the 
 church must travail, that the church must now 
 pass through a dispensation which was night 
 time, and that the only day would be when the 
 blessed Jesus, the Son of Righteousness, would 
 throw His effulgence from one end of the earth 
 to the other. Until that, all is darkness. . . . 
 If we wait for the conversion of the world, surely 
 we will have to wait a long time before the com- 
 ing of the Lord Jesus Christ ; but instead of the 
 church converting the world, the world has con- 
 verted the church, and guilty Christendom to- 
 day is locked in spiritual adultery with this 
 world, and it will be only at the coming of the 
 high priest, who will send his dart through the 
 nominal church and the world, that we will see 
 the everlasting righteousness that the Son of God 
 will bring in, to the everlasting praise of the 
 Most High.'' 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 155 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE FACTS OF THE CASE. 
 
 " The world is very evil; 
 
 The times are waxing late, 
 Be sober and keep vigil, 
 
 The Judge is at the gate — 
 The Judge that conies in mercy, 
 
 The Judge that comes with might, 
 To terminate the evil, 
 
 To diadem the right."— St. Bernard. 
 
 In the preceding chapter we have given the 
 teaching of the Bible and of a few Bible students 
 in regard to the moral condition of our world. 
 We have shown that, as the last days come on, 
 as we draw nearer to the dawning of Eternity's 
 morning, we must not look for great moral im- 
 provement among the masses of the people. 
 As we draw near to the momentous time when, 
 " with the voice of the archangel and with the 
 trump of God," the Son of man back to our 
 earth shall come, we need not expect the people 
 generally to become more law-abiding, more 
 peaceful, more holy, more faithful to one another 
 and to God. But on the contrary we have been 
 led to look for worldliness and formality in the 
 nominal Church, for an undermining of the puri- 
 ty of society, for lawlessness, for an abounding 
 
156 TEE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 of iniquity, and an increase of that which is 
 wrong. And when such a state of things comes 
 about, we may know that we are in the "last 
 days." When we see such a condition of things 
 predominating in the world, we may know that 
 we are nearing the time when Jesus shall come 
 again, and when the whole world, both of living 
 and dead, must be brought before Him to judg- 
 ment. 
 
 Where are we now? What is our condition 
 now? Is it such as to make us believe that we 
 are in the times just previous to the coming of 
 Christ? Does the state of the world to-day 
 teach us to expect His soon coming ? Are we 
 in the "perilous times" of the "last days?" 
 We will give a few opinions and statistics re- 
 garding the condition of the present age of our 
 world. 
 
 We think we are in the "time of the end," 
 that we are now in the very " last days." The 
 earth truly is full of sin, corruption is plenteous, 
 iniquity abounds. Men's hearts are evil, and 
 their deeds are vile. Society is rotten, the Church 
 is " lukewarm," politics are corrupt, the people 
 are restless, " nations are angry." 
 
 I purpose to give quite copious extracts from 
 D. T. Taylor's pamphlet entitled " The Increase 
 of Crime." Read them carefully. " The sins of 
 Noah's age were utter heart-corruption, careless 
 

 THE CROWNING HOPE. 157 
 
 abandonment to pleasure, wide-spread violence, 
 and withal, pride and abundance among the 
 masses. Men forgot God. ; They knew not' 
 till wrath came. ' Even so shall it be in the days 
 of the Son of man.' — Luke 17 : 26. Never before 
 has the world taken on these old sinful features 
 as to-day. 'Worse and worse' is the prophetic 
 picture of the future. The spirit and acts of 
 those ancient times are visible in all civilized 
 lands. Increase of wealth, corruption of heart, 
 impurity, deeds of violence, pride, careless secu- 
 rity, insane love of pleasure, a craze for money, 
 drunkenness, death of conscience, a seeking to 
 be # loosed from all moral restraint, doubt and 
 atheism, — these are sad, painful features of so- 
 ciety to-day. I name them as dark omens of 
 His epiphany. Says Mr. Spurgeon : ' Though 
 sin and corruption abound and the love of many 
 waxeth cold, these are but the tokens of His near 
 advent who said it would be so before his 
 appearing.' 
 
 A CATALOGUE OF HORRORS. 
 
 u Ours is a polite, cultivated, luxurious, opulent, 
 musical, ingenious, erudite, scientific and semi- 
 religious age : but for all these, all manner of vice 
 and crime increases ; and immorality, divorce, 
 prostitution, theft, burglary, peculation, defalca- 
 tion, embezzlement, fraud, robbery, suicide, hom- 
 icide, violence, murder, assassination by knife, 
 
158 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 pistol and bomb, outrage, riot, lawlessness, are 
 seen everywhere. ' Leagues formed in hell,' says 
 Pollock, ' appear on earth : ' Anarchism, Commu- 
 nism, Nihilism, the Whisky oligarchy, the Dyna- 
 mite fiend, the military madness of kings, increase 
 of insanity, — can anything be blacker on the 
 world's horizon ? " 
 
 CRIME IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 " Passing to note the rapid spread of crime, 
 we recall the startling statement of George Smith 
 of London, who says the population of our globe 
 has doubled during the last hundred years. Now 
 in that long century, art, science, discovery, 
 music, invention, intelligence, civilization, all, all 
 have advanced. And the Bible and Christianity 
 have also advanced. But has crime kept an even 
 pace? Has evil been swift -footed as good? 
 Well, in Great Britian from 1805 to 1845, while 
 the population increased 65 per cent, crime in 
 England increased 700 per cent, in Ireland 800 
 per cent, and in Scotland 3,600 per cent. Such 
 was Christian England's showing for the first 
 half of the century. (JBlackicood for July, 1884). 
 In the 40 years that have followed, there is in 
 that realm no decrease. The convictions for 
 crime rose in five years (between 1859 and 
 1864) 40 per cent, and in two years (1878— 
 1880) they increased 30 per cent. The increase 
 is four times faster than the population in Eng- 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 159 
 
 land, and 25 times faster in Scotland. Every 
 year England's criminal record leaps up to nearly 
 one million." 
 
 CRIME IX AMERICA. 
 
 " How stands crime in our own land ? c Worse 
 and worse.' Why, in a single State — our own 
 Massachusetts — convictions for crime rose from 
 28,149 in 1879 to 48,876 in 1883 : the population 
 during that period running up 22 per cent, while 
 crime rose up 90 per cent. Think of the crimi- 
 nal class almost doubling in only four years in 
 one of the best States in the Union ! Taking a 
 period of fifteen years ending 1885, and crime 
 increased in the. State 125 per cent. Looking 
 over our papers, we find that prison records gave 
 13,466 as the number in our prisons in the year 
 1858. In 1877 the number rose up to 246,599 
 prisoners — an increase of persons arrested for 
 offenses and crimes of 1,900 per cent in nineteen 
 years ! Very much of this startling and alarm- 
 ing increase is caused by drunkenness. In seven- 
 teen years ending in 1870 the Boston police ar- 
 rested 400,000 persons, and 303,000 of them were 
 arrested or aided home for drunkenness. Be- 
 tween 1856 and 1870 the pupulation of Boston 
 increased 53 per cent, but the sin of drunken- 
 ness increased 175 per cent." 
 
 Drunkenness has been mentioned. In regard 
 to this o^reat evil notice the following short sen- 
 
160 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 tence, so pregnant with meaning. "But this 
 much is certain : in spite of the campaigns of the 
 prohibitionists, the liquor traffic is increasing, 
 drunkenness and crime due to it are increasing" 
 — Wm. G. JEggleston, in Leslie's Weekly, May 
 25, 1898, 
 
 From the Boston Sunday Globe of July 5, 
 1892, we clip the following. It is from the pen 
 of " Joe" Howard, a man who evidently knows 
 something of the state of society. " I find my 
 daily life confronted by this record, which has 
 been going on since the world began, beginning 
 with the imprudence of Adam and Eve ; then fol- 
 lowed the murderous episode between Cain and 
 Abel, and it by long generations of wickedness, 
 analagous to that which makes the world rotten 
 to the core today, ." 
 
 And further along he says : " On my study 
 table lie six morning papers. Every one of 
 them is rilled with the details of crime. Why? 
 Because crime stalks through the world today as 
 it has done in all the days since God first planted 
 man upon the earth." 
 
 And yet further on he speaks of " a race of 
 men and women whose distinguishing traits in 
 the year of our Lord, 1891, are wickedness, cru- 
 elty, bestiality, and a yielding to passionate im- 
 pulse to a degree infinitely greater than was ever 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 161 
 
 known before. And that, too, in a Christian 
 country." 
 
 "It is a statistical fact that crime and un- 
 godliness are rapidly on the increase in both 
 high and low society, and the only comfort the 
 friends of Jesus have is in the fact that He will 
 soon come and put an end to violence and infi- 
 delity throughout the world." — Frank Burr. 
 
 "In both high and low society." Some may 
 think that in the higher and wealthier circles of 
 society there is an exemption from vice, that it 
 is the lower classes only who are corrupt. Prob- 
 ably if the truth were known the " upper crust " 
 would be found to be rotten through and 
 through. D. T. Taylor, when speaking of 
 crime in Great Britian, said : " Recent develop- 
 ments in high circles show how rotten is rich so- 
 ciety from the Prince of Wales clown, how much 
 like Sodom is London, and with what a bold and 
 brazen front vice and crime stalk on without re- 
 form or shame." 
 
 On the 28th of May, 1893, Rev. Thomas 
 Dixon, Jr., delivered a sermon in New York, on 
 the subject, "So-called High Society." We 
 q.uote from him : " Recent sad tragedies in this 
 circle of people, the daily record of the divorce 
 court, and the hundreds of society rumors that 
 never reach the press, but reach the ears of those 
 who touch the lives of these people, indicate a 
 
162 THE CBOWNING HOPE. 
 
 condition of morals that remind us of the days 
 of ancieut empires that preceded their fall and 
 ruin. The description of the scenes enacted in 
 this circle of society find their counterpart in the 
 days that preceded the crash of the Roman 
 world, and the debauchery of the French court 
 that preceded the revolution ; and presages for 
 this society, as surely as there is a God in 
 heaven, a day of wrath in which the chaff shall 
 be burned up." 
 
 I insert here almost entire a short editorial 
 from the World* s Crisis : 
 
 STKOXG WOKDS BY JOSEPH COOK. 
 
 " Of all living men Rev. Joseph Cook is the 
 keenest, most comprehensive, most accurate ob- 
 server of current events in all the world, and in 
 all realms of society. He catches the trend of the 
 popular thought as by intuitive foresight . He 
 watches the developments of evil in politics and 
 in religion with sleepless perception, and seldom 
 miscalculates. He fearlessly arraigns great sins 
 in church and State, not sparing political corrup- 
 tion, social infidelity, or ecclesiastical apostacy. 
 He is the boldest denouncer of polygamy and 
 the most powerful foe of the saloon in this land. 
 While we would not quote him on Christian doc- 
 trine, we accept his words touching the present 
 condition of the world as of great significance. 
 And here are some of his latest utterances. 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 163 
 
 ' Three hundred thousand divorces in this 
 country the last twenty years. And you say 
 there isn't any need of revivals and outpourings 
 of the Holy Spirit. If our nation rushes on in 
 sin as it is going now I do not wonder that the 
 Adventists say that the w r orld is coming to an 
 end shortly. If the brakes are not put on, and 
 there are not general revivals in the cities, and a 
 much deeper work of grace upon the hearts of 
 God's people, and they turn to the Lord, there 
 will be a winding up of all things here.' 
 
 "And what is there to hinder 'Our nation 
 from rushing on in sin as it is going now?' Our 
 national disloyalty to God and his AYord gathers 
 strength every hour. The pollution of our poli- 
 tics is something appalling. The stenchful over- 
 flow of our elections, State and national, is 
 enough to poison the morals of our young men 
 past cure. When our great party agitations are 
 on, honesty and honor seem unknown. Ballots 
 are bought and sold as marketable commodities. 
 
 Rum is one of the most potent elements in our 
 election methods. It dictates candidates for 
 office. It makes and unmakes representatives 
 and congressmen. It holds the balance of 
 power in this country, and in many places is the 
 power itself. Are there any indications that 
 1 the brakes ' are likely to be put on ? 
 
 " In the religious realm a refined, subtile, skep- 
 
164 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 tical philosophy is rapidly undermining the an- 
 cient faith and the Scriptures themselves. The 
 rationalistic is pushing the experimental out of 
 sight. To whom shall we look to put on ' the 
 brakes ? ' 
 
 " What Mr. Cook is beginning to see holy 
 prophets and apostles clearly saw long time ago, 
 as sure to come in the ' Last days.' ' Wicked 
 men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, 
 deceiving and being deceived.' 
 
 " Truly — as our great scientist and accurate ob- 
 server says — * There will soon be an end of all 
 things here.' For, as Luther said, c No amend- 
 ment is to be expected.' Such men as Totten, 
 Cook, and Dimbleby are crying the alarm. 
 When will the pulpit awake from its dreaming 
 and warn the people of the coming indigna- 
 tion ? " 
 
 THE SOCIAL EVIL. 
 
 Perhaps there never was another time in the 
 world's history when the social evil was so prev- 
 alent among all classes of people as at the pres- 
 ent day. Sexuality is the ruling passion of the 
 lives of many. Their sexual lusts are unbridled. 
 Free scope and exercise are given to them. 
 That which, to a pure heart, is the most disgust- 
 ing and revolting is alarmingly rife. Young men 
 are lost to all sense of honor and decency. 
 Young women seem to be forsaken by those 
 
THE CROWNING ROPE. 165 
 
 finer feelings of virtue and modesty that are so 
 becoming womanhood. Moral corruption is all 
 around, and ofttimes it exists where it is least ex- 
 pected. Our cities are veritable cesspools of 
 pollution ; and I fear that, in many places, the 
 rural districts are not much better. And this 
 evil is growing rather than dying out. It is 
 among the most contagious of all evils, and 
 sweeps onward with the force and destructive- 
 ness of a prairie fire. 
 
 " Our great cities literally swim in vice. . . . 
 The alluring goddess, Licentiousness, sits a queen 
 in many a court, at many a chancel." — E. A. 
 Stockman. 
 
 " The extent to which the external form of li- 
 centiousness, known as the social evil, has be- 
 come prevalent is awakening serious apprehen- 
 sions for the future of American society. If 
 prostitution undermined and ruined Greece, 
 and Egypt, and Rome, and Venice; if, in a 
 spiritual sense it has enervated the Latin races 
 of the Continent, our modern enterprise and our 
 multitudes of churches will not save us, if this 
 same vice is allowed to capture our youth. 
 
 u A traveling man — an elder in the Presby- 
 terian church — when asked, ' Do you find, in 
 your travels, that our young men practise to any 
 great extent, the social evil ? ' replied, ' Oh, it is 
 horrible.' A physician of good standing who 
 
166 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 was asked, ' To what extent do our young men 
 violate the Seventh Commandment? ' said ' Nine- 
 ty out of every hundred cohabit with women be- 
 fore marriage.' So prevalent is the violation of 
 chastity in this respect, that young men who have 
 kept themselves pure are laughed at in some 
 communities. Another physician when asked 
 the same question, replied : ' It would astonish 
 you — not ten men out of a hundred are guilt- 
 less.' Still another physician — a member of the 
 church and a praying man — said : c I have 
 practiced medicine in this county,' naming it, ' for 
 more than a quarter of a century, and I tell you 
 not five young men out of a hundred are pure.' 
 Still another of unimpeached character and 
 grown old in his practice, said : ' When I 
 was a young man, not one woman in twenty 
 was solicited for her ruin ; now I sometimes think 
 that not one in twenty escapes solicitation.' " — 
 Rev. J. W. Clokey, D. D. 
 
 To show that this vilest of all evils, instead of 
 diminishing, is becoming even more terribly 
 prevalent, we will give just one quotation from a 
 man who has looked into the subject. Rev. 
 Thomas Dixon, Jr., in a sermon on "The Social 
 Evil," said : " The plain truth is that the social 
 evil is increasing each day in power and viru- 
 lence, and threatens more and more the founda- 
 tions of social order." 
 
THE CROWXING HOPE. 167 
 
 Can it be possible that this most abominably 
 vile, most detestably low, most horribly degrad- 
 ing, of all evils, is on the increase in the world? 
 So it seems. O, Lord, deliver us ! Surely the 
 world is about ripe for judgment. Can God 
 allow such filthiness to exist much longer? 
 Would it not, on His part, be an act of mercy, 
 as well as of justice, for Him to stay the world in 
 its downward course of corruption, and bring an 
 end to these things by calling a guilty world be- 
 fore Him to be judged? 
 
 In Scripture which has been before quoted we 
 were informed, among other things, that in the 
 "last days" men should be "fierce." And is 
 that the condition today ? We believe it is, to a 
 greater extent than most people think. Xot- 
 withstanding the culture of these present times, 
 notwithstanding the refinement that should go 
 with advanced civilization, it is yet a fact which 
 we cannot dodge that brutality abounds. What 
 a time this is of suicide, of murder, of horrible 
 mutilation ! What a time of bomb throwing, of 
 dynamite outrages, of gigantic and heartless 
 scheming against the lives and property of 
 others ! But we will take but one phase of 
 "fierceness," and let that teach us as to the con- 
 dition of the times. 
 
 I had an idea that, of late, the court of 
 " Judge Lynch " was not sitting so often as it 
 
168 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 once did. But the following clipped from 
 Leslie's Weekly of June 9, 1892, shows that I 
 was mistaken. And it tends to show the fierce- 
 ness, brutality, and bloodthirstiness of men in 
 the last quarter of the nineteenth century. 
 
 "The extent to which lynchings have been 
 carried on is shown by some authoritative statis- 
 tics carefully compiled by the Chicago Tribune. 
 In 1882, according to this authority, there were 
 lynchings of fifteen whites and fifty-two negroes 
 in the South. Since then the crime has steadily 
 increased until in 1891 there were lynchings of 
 forty-eight whites and one hundred and sixty- 
 nine negroes. This increase has been largely in 
 those localities where public sentiment is not yet 
 fully awakened to the enormity of the crime, 
 and where this method of punishing offenders is 
 justified on the ground that only by summary 
 punishment can a certain class of crimes be really 
 prevented. This view is mere assumption, as 
 statistics show the fact to be that the great 
 majority of lynchings have been for offenses 
 which could easily have been reached by the 
 orderly process of the law. Thus in the last 
 eight years there have been two hundred and 
 fifty-two lynchings for murder, forty-four for 
 robbery, and thirty-seven for incendiarism; 
 while of the total but two-hundred and sixty- 
 nine were for the one offense of rape, which is 
 
THE CROWNING HQPE. 169 
 
 regarded by our Southern brethren as outlawing 
 the perpetrator. The inhuman character of some 
 of these lynchings is well illustrated by the state- 
 ment that, of one hundred and sixty-nine negroes 
 who were lynched last year, seven were burned 
 alive, one was flayed, and one disjointed. This 
 statement was made before the Methodist Gen- 
 eral Conference by a clergyman who is in a posi- 
 tion to obtain trustworthy information on the 
 subject." 
 
 We care not to make this too lengthy, and so 
 we will give but one more quite extended quo- 
 tation. After showing that the times in which 
 we live are " perilous " religiously, morally, polit- 
 ically, etc., the writer says : " What may we 
 learn from Fenianism, rattening, strikes, dyna- 
 mite outrages, Irish murders, boycotting, anti- 
 rent paying, and wholesale intimidation ? These 
 things all tell one tale. They show that the 
 cement has fallen out of the walls of society. 
 The whole machine is unscrewed and unpinned, 
 and out of order. The very foundations of our 
 social fabric are giving away. Is not this peril- 
 ous? I touch all these things very slightly. 
 I might easily add dark colors to the picture. 
 But I have said enough, I suspect, to set any 
 sensible man thinking. I have brought forward 
 facts, plain facts, which I defy anyone to dis- 
 pute, about Romanism, morality, politics and 
 
170 TEE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 social order. I say confidently that the existence 
 of these facts justifies the assertion with which I 
 began. They prove that our times are 'peril- 
 ous times.' .... "If things go on as they do 
 much longer, the sun of old England will go down 
 amidst a hurricane of confusion and trouble, 
 
 such as the world has never yet seen 
 
 Our .... important duty is to be continually 
 looking for the coming and kingdom of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. This is the great event which will 
 wind up the affairs of all nations. Then, and 
 then only, will sin, disorder and superstition be 
 put down completely, and come to an end. . . . 
 
 " I bring before my readers a passage of Script- 
 ure which I commend to their special attention : 
 ' There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, 
 and in the stars ; and upon the earth distress of 
 nations, with perplexity ; the sea and the waves 
 roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and 
 for looking after those things which are coming 
 on the earth ; for the powers of heaven shall be 
 shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man 
 coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 
 And when these things begin to come to pass, then 
 look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemp- 
 tion draweth nigh.' — Luke 21 : 25-28. 
 
 " I make no comment on these words of my 
 Master. I place them before my readers in 
 their naked simplicity, and prefer letting them 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 171 
 
 speak for themselves. If the words of the apos- 
 tle which begin this paper, and the words of the 
 Lord Jesus which I have just quoted, only set 
 my readers thinking, I shall be abundantly 
 thankful. We are in the last days, and perilous 
 times have come/" 
 
 The above words are from the pen of Right 
 Rev. J. C. Ryle. They were written some few 
 years ago. They were true then, but there is a 
 sense in which they are even truer now. There 
 has been a development of evil. It is the 
 opinion of many who are looking into these 
 things, that the world has been progressing in sin 
 very rapidly of late years. Surely the world is 
 about ripe for harvest. The Lord will suffer 
 these things but little longer. We are drawing 
 near to the closing scenes of earth's bloody 
 drama. Soon the awful trump of God will 
 sound. Soon the great Judge will come. Surely, 
 the world is on the down grade. It is gaining 
 momentum as it travels. Its speed is being 
 accelerated. Faithful watchman have long been 
 waving the danger signal, and trying to stay the 
 downward rush of the train that is tearing madly 
 onward to dreadful destruction. But their 
 efforts are futile. The passengers seem not to 
 be aware of their own condition. They appear 
 unmindful of their danger. They are lost in 
 pleasures, in the cares and ambitions of life. 
 
172 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 They are unmindful of God. Yet onward and 
 onward, downward and downward, they rush. 
 By-and-by and the end will come. The crash 
 will come. Cries of despair and shrieks of terror 
 will arise, and down to irreparable ruin will 
 plunge a guilty world. May God help us that 
 we may not be of those who, because of their 
 sins and their rejection of the offers of mercy, 
 meet so awful a fate. 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 173 
 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ARE WE NBAS THE END ? 
 
 The corning of the Lord draweth nigh. 
 
 The Judge standeth before the door.— James. 
 
 Where are we on our voyage over the ocean 
 of Time ? Are we, as it were, just embarking ? 
 Are we just setting out on our journey? After 
 nearly 6,000 years of human history, of sin and 
 sickness, sorrow and disappointment, pain and 
 death ; after so long a lapse of time, a time tilled 
 with blasted hopes and blighted lives, with ruined 
 homes and broken hearts, — is, after all, the voy- 
 age of earthly, sin-cursed human history only 
 fairly begun ? Some have said that the world now 
 is but in its infancy. If this be true then a long, 
 long, and dreary time stretches ahead of the race 
 before it shall come to ripe fruition and full per- 
 fection at the Advent of the Redeemer. Must 
 humanity toil onward and worry forward through 
 sloughs of despond, clouds of gloominess, hours 
 of suffering; with tired bodies, wearied brains, 
 and sorrowing hearts ; — for thousands of years 
 yet to come ? Must history still go on and on in 
 the future, repeating itself in man's disloyalty to 
 God, in his injustice to his fellow man, in his per- 
 
174 THE CB OWNING HOPE. 
 
 petual failure to attain to his highest hopes, in 
 his inability to lift himself from the pit of iniquity 
 and dissatisfaction into which he has been 
 plunged? Or, on the other hand is the voy- 
 age nearly completed? Are we nearing the 
 shores of Eternity? Are we almost at the " end 
 of the world?" Is Jesus soon to come? As 
 another writes : 
 
 " Are we nearing this grandest of all events ? 
 Are there causes, significant with prediction, 
 that we are truly nearing time's end? Do we 
 read it in abounding wickedness? Do we see it 
 in the coldness and lukewarmness of a formal, 
 lifeless church? Are there not tokens of it in 
 the vast warlike preparations of the old world ? 
 Do we more and more realize it, in the alarming 
 increase of crime? Do we note it in the strange 
 phenomena in the heavens above? Do we heed 
 it in the fateful stamp of the increasing earth- 
 quake's shock ? Are we not encompassed about 
 with a cloud of portentous witnesses, as to the 
 certainty and nearness of that grand event?" 
 
 We do not purpose here to enter into an ar- 
 gument attempting to show our proximity to 
 that end for which the Church so long has looked, 
 and which the wicked so long have feared. Ar- 
 guments showing that the mortal history of our 
 race is about accomplished, that soon the world 
 must stand before the awful tribunal of an offend- 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 175 
 
 ed God, have been left to other and abler pens. 
 We make no pretentions to being a prophetic 
 scholar. But we thought it might be well to 
 give, for the consideration of the reader, our 
 opinion upon this subject, and also the thoughts 
 of a few others. 
 
 Our belief is that we are nearing Time's end. 
 One thing we know, Christ is coming sometime. 
 At some hour of the future, Time will close and 
 Eternity will begin. The present course of this 
 world will at some time be finished. At some 
 time, the end will come. So teaches the word 
 of God. And we believe we are nearer to the 
 time when Christ shall return to earth than most 
 people even dream. Our opinion is that the 
 coming of Jesus is near, even at the door. His 
 foot, so to speak, is upon the threshold, His hand 
 upon the latch. Soon and suddenly He will come 
 in to view the guests, and woe unto that one who 
 shall be found without the wedding garment. 
 We do not think that the decades will become 
 centuries, and that centuries will lose themselves 
 in millenniums, and that millenniums will roll 
 themselves into vast future ages, before we shall 
 witness the fearful scenes of judgment. But 
 quickly, quickly, will Jesus come. Speedily, 
 speedily, He will return. Soon, soon, will He 
 be here. While the world is lazily dreaming of 
 safety, the awful trump of God may sound. 
 
176 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 While people are busily engaged in the temporal 
 affairs of fast-fleeting Time, the archangel's voice 
 may be heard. While men and women are put- 
 ting far off the evil day, while perhaps, they are 
 thinking that it cannot come in their lifetime ; 
 suddenly, O, how suddenly, a change will come 
 over the spirit of their dream, and they be brought 
 to their senses by the voice of the Son of God as 
 it speaks life to those that are dead, as it 
 speaks terror to those who are living in their 
 sins, as it speaks judgment to all. The condition 
 of the world betokens that the judgment is near. 
 The fulfillment of prophecy gives us reasons, as 
 never before, to expect the immediate coming 
 of the long-absent Nobleman. 
 
 It looks as if the condition of the world were 
 just what the Bible teaches it will be at the time 
 of the ending of earthly affairs. We may know 
 when harvest time has come by noting the con- 
 dition of the crops. And when the fruit is ripe 
 the skilled husbandman does not wait a long 
 time before he gathers it. As for us, none of us 
 could know what constitutes a ripeness for the 
 eternal harvest, a ripeness for judgment, unless 
 it had been revealed to us by God. But the 
 Lord has shown what is to be the condition of 
 the world just preceding the time when the 
 judgment shall set and the books shall be opened. 
 For a long time now the crop of humanity and 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 177 
 
 of human guilt has been ripening. At last it has 
 arrived at that state where it seems as if the 
 heavenly Husbandman would not delay much 
 longer. 
 
 And then, again, according to the prophetic 
 word of God, we are led to believe that the sands 
 of Time have nearly all run out. Many things 
 were predicted to occur before the return of our 
 Lord from heaven. These predicted events are 
 now nearly all in the past. But little remains to 
 be accomplished. The consistent state for a 
 child of God to be in is to be looking for the 
 near coming of Jesus, and to be prepared to 
 welcome Him with joy. With confidence we 
 may look to the heavens, and expect them soon 
 to glow with the presence of Him whom we 
 adore. 
 
 Said Captain R. Kelso Carter in '< A Scientific 
 Study of the Millennium : " " Again and again 
 we are informed of the suddenness of this great 
 change in the ages, the comparison being made 
 by the Lord and the Apostles with the sudden- 
 ness of the ISToachian deluge and the destruction 
 of the cities of the plain ; and everywhere the de- 
 scription is coupled with the warning to watch 
 and pray that we may escape these terrible 
 things, and be found approved of the Lord at 
 His appearing. The comparison is plainly lit- 
 eral. The first great destruction of the earth by 
 
178 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 water is set against the second deluge by fire. 
 Let us not be too ready to quote the old proverb, 
 4 After us the deluge.' The cycles are wound 
 up, and the clock strikes whether we are sleep- 
 ing or waking." And further on he says ; 
 " Search the Scriptures and see if these things 
 are so. Search scientific truth and ascertain if 
 they are consistent. But if Scripture and sci- 
 ence alike show them to be possible and prob- 
 able, remember that to the wise c forewarned is 
 forearmed.' Certainly the solar system is not 
 eternal, as it is now constituted. Certainly noth- 
 ing is more possible than that this earth may en- 
 counter without a moment's warning a gigantic 
 stream of huge meteors, for space is filled with 
 them. As in the case of our great steamers in a 
 fog, no very terrible collision has yet occurred ; 
 but we wonder why, for it is so very possible. 
 And certainly the Bible does declare these 
 awful events to be at hand. The chronological 
 clock is almost striking the hour, Shall we 
 awake ? " 
 
 Some years ago Prof. L. T. Townsend said : 
 " TThen the apostles said the time was short they 
 were correct. But the time is shorter today 
 than in the tin^ of the apostles. The impres- 
 sion is deepening that we are approaching a crisis 
 such as the world has never known. Prophe- 
 cies are being rapidly fulfilled, and even scien- 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 179 
 
 tific men are somewhat uneasy. The moon is 
 behaving strangely ; her actual place in the 
 heavens is so far from her calculated place that a 
 sailor may be misled as to his longtitude at least 
 five miles. What does this mean ? Perhaps 
 not much. Perhaps it means that the beam of 
 the universe is beginning to tip. The planet 
 Mercury is evidently feeling some constraining 
 power that astronomers have not been able to 
 discover. The past year, as everybody says, has 
 been a very strange one. From all this it is not 
 .unreasonable to infer that something will take 
 place which will make men's ears tingle. At 
 least, the age in which we are living is 
 
 CHAKGED WITH MOMENTOUS ISSUES. 
 
 While we would not attempt to trespass on 
 the Bible, in making any effort to fix a day, or a 
 year, still, looking to God who alone knows 
 times and seasons, we would have our feet firmly 
 on the Rock that no storm of fire can wreck, 
 while our gaze should be turned to those habita- 
 tions that are in the heavens." 
 
 As late as June, 1893, Miles Grant said: 
 " Events are fast approaching a grand crisis. 
 The impression is deep and growing deeper in 
 the minds of the closest observers of the signs of 
 the times, that some great event is about to 
 transpire. TThen we turn to the Bible prophets 
 we find we have reached 'the time of the end,' 
 
180 ' THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 long foretold ; and that the ' great event ' is the 
 second coming of Christ." 
 
 Said D. T. Taylor, a well informed and pro- 
 lific writer on this grave subject : " The best ex- 
 egetes, the best biblical critics, the best students 
 of sacred prophecy, the best missionaries, the 
 best evangelists, the best revivalists, the most 
 noted pastors, the best informed Christian men 
 and women on the globe today are looking for 
 Christ's speedy coming A few more ris- 
 ing and setting suns and the waning solemn 
 years of this fast closing age will be ended, a 
 new age will begin." 
 
 Said Dr. T. DeWitt Talmage at one time : 
 " There may be many years of hard work yet be- 
 fore the consummation, but the signs are to me so 
 encouraging that I would not be unbelieving if I 
 saw the wings of the apocalyptic angel spread for 
 its last triumphant flight in this day's sunset" 
 
 Said Mr. Moody on one occasion : " The 
 trump of God may be sounded, for anything 
 we know, before I finish this sermon — at any 
 rate we are told that He will come as a thief in 
 the night, and at an hour when many look not 
 for Him." " I have heard Newman Hall say 
 that he knew no reason why Christ might not 
 come before he got through his sermon." 
 
 I. C. Welcome, after bringing forward some 
 of the many facts showing the fulfillment of 
 
THE CB OWNING HOPE. 181 
 
 prophecy and our proximity to that event, the 
 coming of the Christ, writes as follows : 
 
 " The above facts are but a tithe of the incon- 
 trovertible evidence drawn from the sacred 
 Scriptures, and their literal fulfillment, which 
 demonstrate that the end of the Gospel age, the 
 end of probationary time, is very near. With 
 these accumulating evidences before the careful 
 and prayerful students of the Bible, it is not a 
 strange thing that such a large number of ear- 
 nest and observing Christians are confidently 
 and constantly expecting the immediate return 
 of the Lord from heaven." 
 
 Rev. Lyman Abbott has expressed the idea 
 that if the early Church made a mistake in 
 thinking that the Advent of Jesus would come 
 in their time, people in these days are liable to 
 commit an equally grave error by thinking it to be 
 so far off that it cannot come in our day. But 
 why may it not come in our day ? for, if it comes 
 at all, and it certainly will come, it surely must 
 come in somebody's day. And those in whose 
 time it does come will not be expecting it. On 
 the contrary they will be crying " Peace and safe- 
 ty," and putting this event in the remote and 
 misty future. And why may it not come soon, 
 even before we pass from the busy scenes of 
 active life? Eighteen hundred years have 
 passed since the early Church looked and longed 
 
182 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 for the consummation of their sweetest Hope. 
 During that time many changes have come 
 about, and events have occurred which make the 
 circumstances different and have changed the 
 aspect of things. Things which must needs 
 occur before the end, and events which show we 
 are nearing the " time of restitution," are now 
 in the past, and are recorded on the pages of the 
 world's history. The word of God has been 
 fulfilling, the prophetic declarations are about 
 accomplished, and why is it necessary that the 
 Lord tarry longer ? 
 
 Men may scoff and oppose, and may disbelieve 
 the truths of God's word. In derision they may 
 ask, " Where is the promise of His coming ? " 
 But their position regarding the matter will not 
 alter the facts of the case, nor keep back the ap- 
 proaching wave of destruction ; for " at the time 
 appointed the end shall be." 
 
 And those who scoff at these solemn things are 
 just doing that which is one of the causes why 
 we think that these are indeed the very last days. 
 For Peter prophesied that " in the last days 
 mockers shall come with mockery, walking after 
 their own lusts, and saying, Where is the prom- 
 ise of His coming?" — H. V. 
 
 O, how momentous are these times ! How 
 precious is every moment that remains ! And 
 how it should be improved by us in making our 
 
THE CROWNING HOPE. 183 
 
 preparations for that august event, and, also, in 
 doing what we can to get others ready. Our 
 time should not be spent in useless dallying, nor 
 in following sinful and fading pleasures ; but we 
 should be on the alert in the service of the Lord. 
 We should not be half-hearted in His work, but 
 should be as earnest and as zealous as though 
 He were coming tomorrow. 
 
 Soon, O how soon, will the radiant heavens 
 part ! Soon, O how soon, will the trump of God 
 be heard ! Soon, O how soon, will a guilty world 
 stand before the judgment seat of Christ ! What 
 a time that will be ! No hiding then. No cov- 
 ering up of our dirty deeds. No concealing our 
 sins. No shifting of the blame from ourselves 
 to some one else. Each must stand there for 
 himself. Then " every man shall bear his own 
 burden." The secrets of hearts shall then be 
 revealed. Things long hidden in our breast will 
 then be as open as the shining sun. Evil long 
 covered up will then be as disagreeably open as 
 an uncovered cesspool. And what gigantic cess- 
 pools of corruption will the hearts of some be 
 seen to be. Are we ready to have our lives 
 laid open ? Are we ready to have our secret 
 thoughts exposed ? Are we ready to . have the 
 light of judgment turned full upon our charac- 
 ter ? If not, then we had better be making good 
 use of the time that now is ours. " Boast not 
 
184 THE CROWNING HOPE. 
 
 thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what 
 a day may bring forth." But NOW, while you 
 have opportunity, make preparation. Make 
 your peace with God. Mercy's gates are still 
 open. God's ear will yet hear a penitent cry. 
 The blood of Jesus will yet atone for sin, and 
 will cleanse whiter than snow. Haste, O haste ! 
 Delay no longer! But now, now, go to God 
 with all your sins, and He will graciously re- 
 ceive, and pardon all guilt. You yet can be fit- 
 ted so as to be able to stand before the Son of 
 God when, in His majesty, He shall soon ap- 
 pear. 
 
 In bringing this last chapter to a close, I will 
 do it in the words of benediction by the holy 
 Paul : " Now the God of hope fill you with all 
 joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound 
 in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost." 
 
 "Our Hope" is the title of a book by E. A. Stockman. It 
 treats of the Second Advent of Christ. Get one and read it. 
 Price, 60 cents. Send to Chas. H. Woodman, 144 Hanover St., 
 Boston, Mass. 
 

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