SERMON XXI. THE COMING OF CHRIST. LUKE XII. 40. "Be ye, therefore, ready, also; for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not." IN the preceding part of this chapter our Saviour gives us a series of most solemn and important instructions concerning our conduct in the present life, and our preparation for that which is to come. In the 35th verse he enjoins the duty of watchfulness, as eminently interesting to man, especially to Christians, and in the succeeding verses enforces it by several solemn considerations. To this injunction he returns, immediately, in the text, and annexes to it a reason of the highest moment, "Be ye, therefore, ready also; for the Son of Man "cometh at an hour when ye think not." In discoursing upon this passage, I propose to consider briefly, I. The persons to whom the command is addressed. II. The command itself; and III. The reason by which it is enforced. I. The persons to whom the command was addressed were originally the audience to which our Saviour was speaking.. These, as St. Luke informs us, were an innumerable multitude of people, gathered, as it would seem, to hear him preach the Gospel. A part of them were his disciples, a part of them were his enemies, and a part, probably including the greatest number, could scarcely have known any thing of him, unless by report. To all these classes of men the command is addressed in the written Gospel. To him who reads it, and to him who hears it, it is addressed alike, and that whether he be a Christian, or a sinner, acquainted with Christ, or unacquainted. At the present time, it is addressed immediately to every member of this audience. II. In examining the command itself, I shall briefly mention, First, What that is for which we are to be ready; and 1st, We are required to be ready for the coming of Christ. There are several senses in which this phrase may be fairly understood, as used in the Scriptures. When it is applied to individuals, it particularly denotes the day of death. Death to every man is the time in which Christ will come, which will terminate every man's probation, and put an end to the necessity and duty of watching, so solemnly enjoined in the text. All the purposes for which he is to watch are then finally settled, and all the opportunities of becoming ready for the ap pearance of his Master are ended for ever. Whatever privileges, whatever means of amendment he may have possessed, he will possess them no more. Whatever resolutions he may have formed, whatever labours he may have begun, towards the preparation enjoined, they will all cease at this period. If the work is not now done it will never be done. For the coming of Christ, then, on our dying day we are here commanded to be ready. We are also required to be ready for the judgment. When we leave the world, we shall be summoned to give an account of the manner in which we have spent our probation, and employed our talents. This account we shall give to Christ himself, and shall then be declared by him to have done well or ill. The sentence which he will here pronounce will be irreversible, and the trial admit of no appeal. Our souls will be suspended on its issue, and whatever good or evil may be in store for us during the progress of our future being; whatever may be hoped, and whatever may be dreaded by us, it will all follow this decision. For an event of this magnitude it is immensely important that we should be ready. We are also to be ready for eternity. In this immense duration the final sentence will be carried into complete and endless execution. Every work which we have done in this life, will then find its reward, and the sum of happiness, or the mass of misery allotted to us, will be immeasurably great. Who ought not to be ready for such a state of being as this? What measures ought to be grudged? What pains ought to be spared? What self-denial ought not cheerfully to be un- <dergone? Secondly, I will now proceed to inquire what is included in being ready. This subject, for reasons which satisfy myself, I shall canvass in the negative form. From the characteristics of those who are not ready, my audience may, if they are willing, learn with some advantages, which are peculiar to this mode of discussion, the true nature of that preparation for the coming of Christ, which he has enjoined in the text. In the first place, no person is ready for the coming of Christ, who does not keep the Sabbath holy. We are required in the Scriptures to turn away our foot from the Sabbath, from doing our pleasure on this holy day; to call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy of the Lord honourable, and to honour him, not doing our own ways, nor finding our own pleasure, nor speaking our own words. If we do this, we are furnished with a series of most gracious promises, conveying to us the richest of all blessings. We shall be accepted in all our solemn services; shall be enabled to delight ourselves in Jehovah; shall be made joyful in his house of prayer; and shall have given to us an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off. At the same time, we are required not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together; to wor ship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; and are taught, that all the good, esteem the tabernacles of Jehovah amiable; that their heart and their flesh cry out for the living God; that his ⚫ house is to them as a nest to the sparrows; and that every one of them in Zion appeareth before him. Here we are taught, he is their Sun and their Shield: here he gives grace and glory, and here he withholds from them no good thing. On the other hand, the anger of God against the pollution of the Sabbath is awfully shown in the law which required, that the Sabbath-breaker should be stoned; in the declaration that the land should lie desolate during the Babylonish captivity, because it did not rest in their Sabbaths, while the Israelites dwelt upon it; and in the prediction of God, recorded by Ezekiel, that he would pour out his fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them, because they greatly polluted his Sabbaths... 3 It will not be denied, that in this audience the number of persons who do not perform these duties, and are guilty of these sins, is not small. The listless, sleeping, stupid, attitude, so often seen in this house, and the trifling, light-minded, irreverent character, perhaps on no Sabbath unseen, prove, beyond a hope, as well as beyond a doubt, that this holy day is by the same persons profaned and polluted elsewhere. To every one of these persons I say without hesitation, You are not ready for the coming of Christ. You live in a regular, gross, daring disobedience to the commands of God; commands, too, delivered to mankind in a manner, awful and solemn beyond expression. At the same time you have not attempted, you are not now attempting, to prepare yourselves either for death, judgment, or eternity. This is evident beyond all controversy, because the Sabbath is the very day, and the sanctuary the very place, in which more than in all others, this preparation is to be made. This is the time in which God especially requires you to hear his voice, and not harden your hearts. This is the day on which, if ever, your burnt-offerings and sacrifices are to be accepted on his altar. This is the day on which the Lord hath chosen Zion, and desired it for his habitation. On this day he says, "This is my "rest for ever: here will I dwell. I will abundantly bless "her provision. I will satisfy her poor with bread,”—the bread of life. "I will clothe her priests with salvation; and "the saints shall shout aloud for joy." To these commands you refuse obedience: these blessings you cast away. If you feel at a loss concerning your readiness for the coming of Christ, ponder with deep solemnity the emotions with which you will recite before your Judge the manner in which you have hitherto kept the Sabbath, and behaved in the sanctuary. What reasons will you be able to give why you have from week to week profaned this holy day, and wasted its golden hours in idleness, in trifling, in stupid inattention? and why in this house of God you have forgotten all your duty, and neglected your souls? What reasons will you allege for turning a deaf ear to the precepts and denunciations of the divine law? What reasons will you give for turning a hard heart to the offers of mercy in the Gospel? Christ has often met you here. Can you allege a reason which he will admit, why you have not believed in him? Often, very often, has he proffered to you all the blessings of his redemption. Why have you not received them? He has solemnly called upon you to forsake your sins. Why have you not forsaken them? He has warned you with infinite tenderness to flee from the wrath to come. Why have you not escaped? He has entreated you to lay hold on eternal life. Are you possessed of a reason for refusing it, which you are willing to recite to him in your final account? Beside these glaring proofs of your absolute want of preparation for this most affecting interview, remember that heaven is the temple of God, the seat of perpetual worship. Over its delightful realms rolls an everlasting Sabbath. This day of immortality dawns to be succeeded by no future evening. Its morning incense spreads wide its fragrance, never to cease again. Its piety kindles, its raptures glow, never to be extinguished. Its praises tremble on the harps and lips of the multitude which no man can number, to be silent no more for How can you be prepared to unite in such worship as this, to whom the present momentary imperfect worship of an earthly Sabbath is an insupportable burthen? How can a voice, ever. |