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manfully, through the living grace of Him who for

us died and rose again, and who to them that look for Heb.9.28.

Him will soon appear the second time without sin

unto salvation!

FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY,
February 9, 1862.

LECTURE XXX.

15

16

17

REVELATION XVI. 15-21.

BEHOLD, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and [men] see his unseemliness.

AND He gathered them together to the place which is called in the Hebrew Harmagedon.

AND the seventh [angel] poured out his bowl upon the air; and there came forth a great voice from the shrine, from 18 the throne, saying, It has come to pass. And there became lightnings and voices and thunders; and there became a great earthquake, such as became not since there became a man upon the earth, so great an earthquake, so mighty. 19 And the great city became into three parts; and the cities

of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered in the presence of God, to give to her the cup of the wine 20 of the wrath of His anger. And every island fled, and 21 mountains were not found. And a great hail as of a talent [in weight] cometh down out of the heaven upon men (mankind;) and men (mankind) blasphemed God out of the stroke of the hail, because great is its stroke exceedingly.

LECTURE XXX.

REVELATION XVI. 15.

Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth.

WE are reading of the outpouring of seven golden vials or bowls, containing the wrath of God, and Rev. 15. 1. producing what are described as the seven last plagues. The sixth of these bowls of wrath was poured out upon the river Euphrates, that great landmark and ch. 16. 12. barrier between Israel of old and the enemies of Israel, that celebrated stream from beyond which from the earliest times came the most formidable of Israel's invaders; and the effect of that outpouring was that the waters of the river were dried up, that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared. The righteous judgment of God is shown in smoothing the way for the advance of His enemies towards an intended triumph and towards an actual destruction. God Himself, when the hour of His last interposition is approaching, facilitates that march

by which the hosts of evil pass to a decisive combat
with the armies of Christ.

God prepares the way. But the influence by

which the hosts of evil are mustered is not of God. Rev.16.13. I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. Each of the three great enemies of Christ's truth and of Christ's Church contributes a special influence towards this result, this gathering of the powers of evil to combat and to ruin. For they are the spirits of devils, doing signs, working portents in attestation of their commission, which go forth upon (or for, in quest of, to fetch) the kings of the whole world, to gather them to the war of that great day of God Almighty. Just 1 Ki.22.20, as the lying spirit went forth to persuade Ahab that he might go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead, so do these unclean spirits go forth to gather the rebel kings to that war upon which shall burst at the set time the manifested presence of God Himself in the person of the Saviour and the Judge of man.

22.

Verse 15.

At this point the narrative is interrupted by the solemn voice of the warning just read to you as the

text.

Behold, I am coming as a thief. Suddenly and by surprise, at the darkest hour, the season of general unconsciousness and sleep, when men have barred their windows and locked their doors and

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have laid themselves down to take their rest; at such a moment, under such circumstances, I the Lord Jesus, I of whom all men are saying, Where is 2 Pet. 3. 4. the promise or where the threat of His coming? shall surely come again, even as I first ascended, to re- Joh. 14. 3. ceive my own unto myself, and to be the Judge of Act. 10.42. quick and dead. The day of the Lord so cometh as a 1Th.5.2,3. thief in the night: for when they shall say, Peace and

safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. 2 Pet. 3.10. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee Rev. 3. 3. as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will

come upon

thee. Behold, I come as a thief.

Blessed is he who watcheth. They are the words

of our Lord Himself in the Gospel. Blessed are Lu. 12. 37. those servants, whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching. If the Advent is to be thus sudden, at the darkest hour, when sleep overpowers the unexpecting, there is no safety but in vigorous watching: wakefulness must be the one virtue of those who would be found of Him in peace, without spot, and blameless. ? Pet. 3. 14. But he who would well watch must also in

another sense be ready. At the very moment of the Advent there will also be the call to action. The door must be promptly opened at the Master's knock: nay, the servant who would greet Him must even go forth to do so. Blessed therefore is he who watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked

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