that day may not come upon you unawares? Salvation is provided. It is salvation for us. And it is salvation that must soon be accomplished. By no means then let us sleep as do others, and neglect it.

The Promised Deliverance.

Second Sunday in Advent.

Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.-LUKE 21: 36.

HE context of these words treats of a momentous crisis in this world's history. Reason itself, apart from revelation, might anticipate something of it. Everything that lives, or moves, of which we have any knowledge, is plainly tending to a time when it comes to its fullness, and a marvellous change occurs. Conscience also suggests some great moral juncture as the harvest of what mankind has been sowing,-some decisive outcome and consummation that will explain the many riddles which perplex our philosophies. Even the heathen were persuaded that there must come a time of judgment and retribution for the world, as for the individuals who inhabit it. But, when we go to the sacred Scriptures, given by inspiration of God, we are left in no doubt that "He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness." And the main features of that great crisis, as also the chief

duties by means of which to secure our safety when it comes, are duly set forth.

First of all, it is described as a time of alarming portents, commotions, and distresses. The Saviour tells of strange and terrifying disturbances in earth, and sea, and sky, and such startling manifestations everywhere, that men's hearts will fail them for fear, and many will faint and perish for very terror at what is coming on the earth. Nay, the word is, that the very stabilities and powers of the heavens shall be shaken.

We may not be able to explain accurately what all is meant by these terms; but they certainly include great and terrible convulsions. The Scriptures, in many places, speak of those times as dreadful in the extreme. They are called "the great and terrible day of the Lord," when mountains and islands are shaken out of their places, and many flee for safety to the dens and caves of the earth, calling upon the rocks to fall on them, to hide them from the scenes then to be manifested.

But, with all, it is the time of redemption for God's people. The Saviour says, "When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh."

There is a redemption of price; and there is a redemption of power: the one past, and the other yet to come. The price was paid when Christ surrendered His life for us on the cross, so that there is now no more condemnation to those who

believe on Him. But we are still helpless, and subject to disease, pain, and death. There must be the putting forth of power to lift us out of our many weaknesses and miseries, to recover us from corruption and death, in order to complete our salvation. And the time for that is this very judgment time. With all its alarming accompaniments to the common world, it will be a time of superlative blessedness and glory to the saints.

Furthermore, it is the time of the promised return of our Saviour. The statement is, "Then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory." From the day that Jesus ascended to heaven from Mount Olivet, the chief consolation of the Church was "that blessed hope, even the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." And yet, how many persist in neglecting it, and in explaining it away! The world of our time is specially skeptical on this point, and there be plenty of scoffers to say, "Where is the promise of His coming?" But the Lord is not slack concerning His promises as some men count slackness. He that shall come, will come, and will not tarry. No unbelief of men will stay His chariot wheels. And when He does come, woe to them that despise or make light of His word!

But the text speaks particularly of a way of escape from all these things, before the worst.

comes.

It must be borne in mind that what is called the Second Advent, like the first, will not be all

at once, on a single day or hour, or in one scene or act. It will embrace different stages and manifestations, extending through years. There is, first, a coming "as a thief in the night," unperceived by the common world, and known only by the absence of what has been taken. The Scriptures tell of a parousia,-a presence; and of an epiphania of that parousia,—a showing of that presence; with an interval between covering many acts of judgment upon the living world. In the one case, Christ comes for His people, and then afterwards comes with them. And His coming for His people is at the beginning of the great judgment time; and only later on will He so come as that "every eye shall see Him."

The very first thing, then, will be the sudden and miraculous taking away of His ready and waiting people to meet Him in the heavenly regions. Paul gives it as a special word of the Lord, that when He shall come, "the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive. and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air." So again he says, "Behold I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep,-not all die,-but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye." And this sudden ereption from the earth to the heavenly spaces, is what is described in the text as being "accounted worthy to stand before the Son of Man," quite saved from the terrible things then to befall the unbelieving world.