But are not believers called on to watch? Is not the exhortation, “Watch,
therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come?” Does not this injunction
apply to us? and how can we thus watch if there are any previous events predicted?
Does not this passage show that the momentary expectation that our Lord may
come is that which we should rightly cherish? This exhortation is given us in Matthew
24:42, the very chapter which some say is “Jewish”, and its reference is to that
coming spoken of in the context, which is one of public manifestation, and one which
is introduced by signs. But it has already been stated that the rejection of the
force and bearing of Scriptures, because they are said to be “Jewish”, is a groundless
assumption; and thus, if any choose to quote a few words from such portions in
defence of a supposed secret advent no objection is to be made on that ground;
but the connection has to be shown between the words quoted and the true doctrine
of the Lord's coming, with which He has himself associated them.
The coming spoken of is one as manifest as the lightning, as definite as
the judgment of the flood. Its date is not revealed, so that it cannot be
measured by years or centuries; but there are indications which will speak
definitely to those who are truly watching. To this purpose the parable of the
fig-tree was spoken, of which the application is, “So likewise ye, when ye
shall see all these things, know that it is nigh, even at the doors” (33).[7]
It is to persons thus instructed that the charge is given to watch: they are
not told to watch irrespective of signals, but to be ready to note them as they
appear. “What, then (it is said), are we to wait for signs, and not for the
Lord himself?” But what does such a question mean? If the Lord has told us so
to wait, it is thus that we should watch. To despise the sign is to despise the
Word of the Lord who has promised it; it is to refuse submission to His
authority. If an absent master has told his servants to wait for his return,
which shall be intimated by a letter that he will send, are they obeyers of his
word if they say that they expect him before the arrival of his promised
letter, or if, when the letter arrives, they neglect it, and say that it is not
for them? Those who expect it not, although told, might well do this.
Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye
yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the
wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open to him immediately.
Blessed are those servants whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching:
verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to
meat, and will come forth, and serve them....Be ye therefore ready also; for
the Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not” (Luke 12:35-37,40). Thus
the hope of His coming does not exclude that His knock shall be first heard;
nay, this signal is pre-supposed. Let it also be noted that the same passages
which speak of our being called to watch, as not knowing the day or the hour,
are those in which special prominence is given to the manifest advent of the Lord,
so that these definitely exclude any thought of a supposed secret coming being
that for which we are called to wait.
But, it is said, is not the supposition that events must precede the
coming of the Lord that which is meant by the servant saying, “My lord delayeth
his coming?” Is not the admission of such a thought sinful? In Matthew 24 and
Luke 12 the servant is spoken of who says this; but his sin is not the
knowledge that he has of intervening events, but the mode in which he acts,
though having such supposed intelligence. “But and if that evil servant shall
say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to smite his
fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; the lord of that
servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he
is not aware of; and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with
the hypocrites”. His sin is the use which he makes of his partial knowledge,
instead of his employing it to lead him the more definitely to watch for the
promised indication of his master's coming. He who looks for promised events as
indications of the Lord's advent, will not rest for a moment in the events
themselves: their value is, that they lead on the thoughts and affections to
Him for whom the Church is called to watch and wait, and who has Himself promised these signs to His expecting people. [8]
To watch unscripturally is really not to watch at all; but to substitute
something of emotion and sentiment for “the patient waiting for Christ”.
---------------
[7] “The budding of the fig-tree” is especially considered in my “remarks
on the Prophetic Visions of the Book of Daniel” (pp.1-6, Fifth edition, 1864).
To avoid mere repetition, I refer to what has there been said.
[8] See Appendix F.
