Basic HTML Version
Destruction of Jerusalem
21
the other.” [
Matthew 24:30, 31
.] Then shall they that obey not the
gospel be consumed with the spirit of his mouth, and destroyed with
the brightness of his coming. [
2 Thessalonians 2:8
.]
Let men beware lest they neglect the lesson conveyed to them in
the words of Christ. He has declared that he will come the second
time, to gather his faithful ones to himself, and to take vengeance on
them that reject his mercy. As he warned his disciples of Jerusalem’s
destruction, giving them a sign of the approaching ruin that they
might make their escape, so he has warned his people of the day
of final destruction, and given them signs of its approach, that all
who will may flee from the wrath to come. Those who behold the
promised signs are to “know that it is near, even at the door.” “Watch
ye therefore,” are his words of admonition. “If thou shalt not watch,
I will come on thee as a thief.”
The world is no more ready now to credit the warning than were
the Jews in the days of our Saviour. Come when it may, the end
will come unawares to the ungodly. When life is going on in its
unvarying round; when men are absorbed in pleasure, in business,
in traffic, in money-making; when religious leaders are magnifying
the world’s progress and enlightenment, and the people are lulled
in a false security,—then, as the midnight thief steals within the
unguarded dwelling, so shall sudden destruction come upon the
careless and ungodly, “and they shall not escape.”
[39]