XXV. SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

TEXT: When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand :) then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains : let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days? But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day for then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore, if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert : go not forth behold he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together.-Matt. 24, 15-28.

Since the world began God has observed this order that He forewarns men of the punishment of sin and His impending judgments. This is a great mercy of God, because in this wise time and space for repentance is granted unto men, and it is His desire that men should turn unto Him, that His retributions might be averted, or mitigated, or at least, that those who do turn unto Him should escape the coming wrath. Those also who will not repent are rendered without excuse, having been forewarned of the destruction coming upon them. To the first world God granted one hundred and twenty years, but it repented not and perished in the flood. Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh in the name of the Lord, asking that he should let

Israel go, otherwise great calamity would come upon him and his people. If Pharaoh had heeded the warning, both he and

Egypt would have been spared, but he hardened his heart and said: "Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." Ex. 5, 2. Yet the Lord had forbearance with Pharah and sent Moses and Aaron to him over and again with the same warning, but he persisted in his perverse mind until his carcass sank down to the bottom of the sea. Jonah was sent to that great city Nineveh whose wickedness had come up before the Lord, and he preached: "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown," but the king and the people repented in sackcloth and ashes, and Nineveh was spared.

A great mercy of God that He forewarns men of His coming judgments. Knowing that a certain thing is coming, man can apply himself to avert it or to escape it, and that men should so do is the object of God in IIis warnings. To this St. Peter bears witness when he writes: "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." 2 Ep. 3, 9. This is God's purpose, with this end in view He plans His providential dealings that men should repent and should not perish. And because they have been forewarned, therefore when sudden destruction comes upon the wicked, they are compelled to acknowledge that God is righteous and His judgments are just. Of that stiff-necked generation of the Jews who would no more repent the Lord said: "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin." John 15, 22. The Lord warned them, their city would be destroyed and the kingdom of God would be taken from them, but they made light of His warning and, instead of repenting, they made His warning a cause of accusation against Him to put Him to death.

Now we are forewarned in the Word of God that a day is coming in which every man will be judged according to his works, and if we heed not this warning, then, verily, twofold destruction must fall upon our heads. The inhabitants of Jerusalem should therefore be a warning example unto us, persuading us to take heed and not to walk in their footprints, but

to seek the Lord while He may be found and to make haste to flee from the wrath to come. Allow me therefore to speak on:

THE LORD'S COMMAND TO FLEE FROM JERUSALEM AN EXHOR

TATION TO US TO FLEE FROM THE WRATH TO COME.

Now the Lord instructed the disciples

I.

When and how they should flee; and

II. By what they should be guided in their flight.

I.

When the Lord was once going out of the temple and the disciples called His attention to the magnificence of the building He said, the time was coming, when not one stone of it would be left upon another. Thereafter, when He was sitting on Mount Olive opposite the temple and the disciples asked: "When shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?" He preached them a long sermon on the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the world. Of that sermon this Gospel is a part. It treats both of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the world's end. But as the destruction of Jerusalem is an illustration of the end of the world, therefore all here said may be applied to the last times of this world. The abomination of desolation as it was in the land of Judah, is an image of the abomination of desolation in the last days; the tribulation of those days in Judea represents the tribulation of the latter days; the seductions of those days picture the seductions before the end of the world. In this wise all here said of Jerusalem may be applied to the present and the coming days, to do which is indeed a highly edifying meditation. But let us hear the text in its literal meaning.

"When ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand.") What was this abomination of desolation? Some say, it was the destruction of the city and the temple, but this ill agrees with the text, because the Lord here commands the disciples, when they would see the abomination

of desolation they should hastily flee, but when the city was already being destroyed it was too late for flight. Some have thought it idols placed in the temple, but history does not record that idols were placed in the temple at that time. The emperor Cajus did command that his statue should be set up in the temple for worship, but owing to the stubborn opposition of the Jews it was not done. The Lord Himself directs us to the prophecy of Daniel, who in the 9th chapter says: "The people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood." And again he says: "For the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation." In a marginal note you will find these latter words rendered thus: "And upon the battlements shall be the idols of the desolator." Daniel clearly foretold, a mighty ruler would come to destroy the city and the sanctuary, and this destroyer would come upon them like a flood suddenly and swiftly. Therefore this "abomination of desolation" was the Roman general with his army; for that heathenish army with its idols was indeed an abomination to the Jews, and it was an abomination of desolation; for it made desolate the city and all the land of Judea. The Lord, therefore, here means to tell the disciples, if they would see an idolatrous and bloodthirsty army enter the Holy Land, march against the holy city and destroy every thing before it, then they should understand that the destruction of the city, the temple and the people was at hand. That this is the Lord's meaning is established by the Gospel of Luke, where the Lord says: "When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh." Ch. 21, 20.

In this same sentence the Lord tells, what the disciples who would then be in Jerusalem and Judea should do: "Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains." With these words the Lord indicates, then would have come the desolation of the city and the whole country. In olden time God had often protected Jerusalem most wonderfully. When it appeared that the city must become a prey to the enemy, the Lord showed that Jerusalem was the apple of His eye, and the most powerful

armies were powerless against it. But now the Lord did no more say, His faithful followers should stay and should cry to God and He would defend them. Now the Lord commanded flight as the only means to escape the tribulation of those days. That people had filled the measure of wrath full to the brim, and to deliver His own from the destruction which could be delayed no longer, the Lord bade them to flee, not only out of Jerusalem, but out of the country, because in the whole land there would be no safety. That the Lord here says, they should flee to the mountains does not imply that they would not be allowed to go elsewhere. In times of danger mountains afford the most secure hiding places and, therefore, the expression to flee to the mountains means in general to flee to a place of safety. This command of the Lord the Christians at Jerusalem kept in memory, and when the Jewish war commenced they emigrated to the east of Jordan and there, in a mountain village called Pella, they dwelt in peace for many years.

How they should flee the Lord also describes: "Let him which is on the house top not come down to take anything out of his house: neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes." The houses of the Jews had flat roofs, and they were accustomed to spend much of their time on the roof. Now those who would be on the housetop, when the enemy would approach, should not tarry in the house to gather up their treasures and to pack their goods, they should flee straightway; and those who would be in the field, though having nothing which is needed on a long journey, yet they should not return to their house to provide themselves with food and raiment, they should forthwith start to make their escape from the land. Why so sudden and hasty a flight? Because the Roman armies came like a whirlwind and for those that tarried there was no escape. Therefore the Lord here exclaims: " And wo unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! This is not a wo like that pronounced on the scribes and Pharisees; that was a wo of wrath, but this is a wo of compassion. The Lord pities these women, because they would not be able to filce so suddenly, and would be obliged to remain. The Lord