LECTURE IX.

THE ADVENT A MOTIVE OF ALARM TO THE

WORLDLY.

BY THE HON. AND REV. H. M. VILLIERS, M. A.,

RECTOR OF ST. GEORGE'S, BLOOMSBURY.

1 THESS. V. 3.

"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."

ALLUSION has been made more than once, my Christian friends, in the course of these Lectures, to the commonly-received opinion, that the Second Advent is less startling and less stringent as a motive than death. I must confess I should feel disposed to deny the truth of that opinion as a matter of fact, even if I did not feel that the

M

Scripture leaves us in no doubt as to its inaccuracy.

Before I had ever searched the Scriptures with the object of learning what the Holy Ghost teaches on this particular subject, I was in the habit of making the same assertion. Prejudice may do much to warp the judgment, but downright ignorance does much more. It not only blinds the eye, but stirs up that unruly member, the tongue, to give utterance to opinions in words, strong in proportion to the degree of ignorance which dictated them. It is this which makes a course of lectures such as the present so important. The constant repetition of truth, and the denial of contrast errors, constrains, as it were, men to think upon, if not to investigate, the subject. I have rejoiced to find many of my dear friends and brethren in this parish acknowledge the importance and the prominence given to those topics in the Word of God.

But independently of Scripture testimony, permit me to remark, that death has not that awakening and stirring influence on the minds of men which is asserted by those who reject what are called prophetical views. The suddenness of death is acknowledged in words, and disbelieved at heart. Experience rather confirms this unbelief.

I do not deny that death does sometimes come suddenly. I do not gainsay the fact, that if a person witness the sudden and instantaneous death of a member of his family, it solemnizes his heart, makes him acknowledge the awfulness of the visitation, and on the succeeding Sabbath, with redoubled energy, he cries, "From sudden death, good Lord, deliver us!"

But I appeal to you, first, whether the number of sudden deaths bears any such proportion to the number of those who have been spared to think over the future and reflect on the past on a sick bed, as to say that death is so sudden as fitly to be compared with the coming of a thief in the night? And again, I ask, whether, even in the case in which sudden death has been witnessed, it is not an admitted fact that the impressions quickly pass away like "the morning cloud or early dew?" (Hos. vi. 4.)

But it is not so where the doctrine of the Second Advent is admitted to the prominence which is given to the subject in the Word of God. The full belief that the Saviour may appear this year, or next year, or even in our own day, must startle and must arouse some feeling within our breasts. We picture to ourselves, on the one theory, some hundreds of years perhaps, during which we shall lie in the cold ground, separated

from those dear to us in the flesh, and not admitted to the full participation of those eternal joys promised to God's dear children: but on this theory we may expect, and do expect, speedily to see our God and Judge, to give an account of the deeds done in the body, to be finally admitted into His presence, and to participate in the fulness of joy at His right hand for evermore. When these views are heartily embraced they display the comparative emptiness of this world's wealth and the folly of that over anxiety for the future, which makes so many slaves now and companions of devils hereafter.

I will not, however, in addressing a congregation who have repudiated this dogma, or who are, at any rate, free from prejudice in its favour, occupy the time by contrasting at greater length the comparative power of either theory, but will at once proceed to treat the question affirmatively according to the wording of the subject upon which I am to speak to-night, namely, "THE SECOND ADVENT A MOTIVE OF ALARM TO THE WORLDLY."

May the Lord grant us the presence of His Holy Spirit while I endeavour to unfold this subject from the words of my text! Our first inquiry must be "What is meant by the term WORLDLY?"

The world is used in many different senses in the word of God. Its meaning must now be

strictly defined before we can understand who are intended by "the worldly."

The world is sometimes used in the sense of the universe, “The world was made by Him." This is not the meaning here. It is also used as the common name for all mankind, entered into the world."

66

By one man sin "God so loved the world

وو

that he sent His only begotten son.' This, again, is not the meaning here.

I should rather define the world as the contrast principle to heaven. Wherefore the Apostle John says, in his first Epistle 2d chap. and 15th verse, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."

From this, then, we may readily infer that by the worldly are meant those who are incited by motives, influenced by principles, and encouraged by objects, the reverse of those of the children of God. All men are by nature the children of wrath. They are under the dominion of the "Prince of this world," "the god of this world," and continue so until by a saving change wrought in them by the Holy Ghost, on account of the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, they are set free from this bondage and become children of God by adoption, And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. (Rom. viii. 17.)