this change falling on our hearts, is one of the saddest experiences of life. It may be that such was the feeling of the disciples, as they saw Jesus ascend in glory. They feared lest he would not be the same loving and lowly one to them in heaven, that he had been on earth.

But it was otherwise with Jesus. He was unchangeable, so completely so, that when he would return the second time in the pomp of judgment, it would be "this same Jesus" who would return unchanged in all the lovely and gentle traits of his nature. The heavens shall pass away like a scroll, and the earth be burned up, but he shall remain the same, yesterday, to-day, and for ever. This is a precious truth in a world of change and uncertainty. All around us is changing. Society changes from year to year by death and removal. We ourselves change continually from youth to age, in all that pertains to us. All around us is subject to this great law of change, and there is no sure basis of hope in life. But we have to do with a Saviour who is unchanging and unchangeable. That same Jesus who spake kindly to the widow of Nain, and the sisters of Bethany, in their hour of bereavement; who gave peace to the afflicted hearts of his disciples in the midnight storm of Genessaret; who wept over Jerusalem in gushing tenderness and regret; who wrestled in agony in Gethsemane; and prayed for his enemies on Cal

vary; that same Jesus still sits on the throne of glory above and is yet touched with a feeling of our infirmities, and can sympathize with us in all our sorrows, and have a fellow-feeling in our infirmities. This is a thought full of sweetness to us amid the trials of life, and the fears of death and judgment. That same Jesus who has supported others, will support us, if we trust him, and keep what we commit to him "until that day."

3. The Warning. "This same Jesus-shall come." The great event here predicted is the second coming of Christ. This event has been the great burden of prophecy, since the entrance of sin into the world. Enoch looked forward to it and declared that "the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all." Job looked forward to it as he expected his Redeemer to stand at the latter day upon the earth. David expected it as he declared, "Our Lord shall come and shall not keep silence, a fire shall devour before him, it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people." Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, all had glimpses of this mighty event, and kindled into rapture as they looked forward to it. Joel spake of the coming of "the great and terrible day of the Lord," "the day of the Lord in the valley of decision." Habakkuk seems to have written his

sublime ode of a coming God, in the light of this awful day. Haggai and Zechariah looked forward to it, as they linked this day with the work of rearing from the dust, the temple, that earthly symbol of great heavenly realities. And as the spirit of prophecy was about to withdraw for a time from the church, Malachi gazes on it with the most intense emotion, and exclaims, "The day! it comes burning as an oven! The great and dreadful day of the Lord!" The last ray that fell on the eye of prophecy as the curtain fell, was the red glare of this coming of the Lord.

When we open the New Testament these warnings become more distinct and emphatic. Our Lord himself repeatedly speaks of the coming of the Son of Man. He compares that coming, as to its suddenness and fearfulness, to the days of Noah and of Lot, when the flood and the fire from heaven swept away the ungodly. He compares it to the sudden flashing of the lightning, whose outburst can never be foreseen. He warns his disciples that they should live with their loins girded, waiting for the coming of the Son of Man. Some of his most solemn parables, those of the Virgins and Talents especially, are based on this dread coming. And among the last and most awful pictures that he gave of the future, that sublime scene in which he would separate an assembled world as the shepherd divides his sheep from his

goats, his coming is the dread theme on which he speaks.

The apostles take up the same note of warning. As soon as Peter opened the gospel to the multitudes on the day of Pentecost, he pointed forward to this coming as the restitution of all things spoken of by the holy prophets, since the world began. Paul repeats the warning in nearly all his epistles. In the very first one he wrote, that to Thessalonica, he dwells so repeatedly on this theme that his words were misapprehended, and it was needful for him to write a second letter, and assure them that in dwelling so much on this great coming he did not mean to represent it as at hand, for there were many great events that must previously happen. But both these early epistles dwell with great earnestness and beauty on this coming of the Lord. Nor were these merely his early and immature opinions. As he writes to the Corinthians in the noonday of his laborious career he still points them in both his letters to this great event, linking even the Lord's supper with it, as a showing of the Lord's death until he come. Nor did he think less of it toward the close of his life. As he writes to his beloved Philippians, he speaks exultingly of his looking for Jesus again from heaven to change this vile body to the likeness of his glorious body. In writing to the Colossians, he also points to the appearance of Christ in glory, and in the epistles

to Timothy and Titus frequently refers to this blessed hope, the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. In that to the Hebrews he also speaks of his coming the second time, without sin to salvation.

Nor is this peculiar to Paul. James also warns his brethren that "the coming of our Lord draweth nigh." Peter devotes the last chapter of his second epistle, written very near to his death, to this sublime theme. Jude repeats the same things, almost in the same words. John, in his first epistle, refers repeatedly to the time when Christ should appear. The Apocalypse opens with the startling call," Behold he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him," details in the most vivid manner the terrible pomp of his coming, and closes up the words of inspiration with the words of Jesus, "Surely I come quickly: Amen," and the longing prayer of the widowed and waiting church, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

Hence, the second coming of Christ has a place in the Scriptures, which perhaps it has not in the faith and hopes of the church. The extravagances that have often been connected with this subject in the past, have led many sober-minded Christians to submerge it in their general current of thought, and remove it from the place that it really holds in the word of God. There are also serious differences of opinion in

regard to the