SERMON IV.

THE ADVENTS OF THE SON OF MAN.

AND THEN SHALL THEY SEE THE SON OF MAN COMING IN A CLOUD, WITH POWER AND GREAT GLORY.-Luke xxi. 27.

THERE are four advents or comings of the Saviour spoken of in the sacred writings. The first, is his coming on the earth, as a teacher, mediator and redeemer, the messenger of a new covenant and a new revelation. The second, is his coming in the general publication and spread of his religion after the destruction of Jerusalem. The third, is his coming to judge the world at the last day. The fourth, is his coming in our hearts. In all these advents he may be said to come, according to the words of the text, in a cloud, or, as it is elsewhere expressed, in the clouds of heaven, that is to say, as the figure is immediately afterwards explained, with power and great glory.

I intend to offer a few observations on each of these advents of Christ.

I. His first coming was his appearance and ministration on earth as a prophet, teacher, and Saviour sent from God. And even this, his first coming, may be said to have been "in a cloud, with power and great glory." Lowly as was his outward condition, destitute as he was of the honors and ensigns of human lordship, the lustrous cloud of his Father's authority and presence was about him as a robe. The spirit and power of Jehovah were with him, surrounding him with a state which was more than royal. Did not a light break out amidst the shades of night, and did not the songs and harpings of angels float down from the skies, to announce that he was born? Did not a voice from heaven, at the time of his baptism in Jordan, declare that this, "the Son of man," was also the beloved Son of God? After he had fasted in the desert, did not angels minister unto him? When he was agonized in the garden, did not an angel strengthen him? And when he expired on the cross, was not the sun darkened, and the veil of the temple rent, and nature thrilled as with a shuddering sympathy? When he stretched forth his hand, was not sight restored to the blind, feet to the lame, health to the sick, and reason to the raving? And when he uttered his voice, did not nature and the grave, the sea, the tempest, the dying and the dead

hear it, and obey it?

power and great glory?

Was not this a coming with

But besides these external signs and miracles of power and glory which attended the appearance on earth of the Messiah, there were the miracles of his spirit and character, of his wisdom and virtue, his humility and piety, which invested him as with a bright and heavenly cloud. The moral splendor of the divine perfections beamed from the holy Jesus, thus making him the "express image" of his Father's person, the very "form and likeness" of that God who is always the most nearly approached by resemblances of his righteousness, and imitations of his goodness, mercy and truth. How pure he stood amid surrounding corruption; how benevolent amid selfishness; how humble amid ostentation and arrogance; how bold and free amid hypocrisy, abjectness and slavery! In opposition and persecution how meek he was; in temptation how steadfast; in suffering how resigned; in stripes and torture how full of compassion, and ready to forgive! No wonder, that with every excellence of character meeting in his person, that working with divine power, and speaking with divine wisdom and truth, the officers who were once sent to take him by command of his enemies, confessed that they could not touch him. No wonder, that when he

made a public entry into Jerusalem, the multitudes spread their garments in the way, and cried, "Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest!"

Such was the first coming of the Son of man. Thus did the man, the promised and expected, appear among those to whom he was sent, in a cloud of heavenly majesty, with power and great glory.

II. The second coming of this same Messiah, was in a cloud of awful retribution, and with the power and glory of conquest and triumph. It was the coming in judgment to those who had rejected, and in might to those who had received him at his first coming. It was the coming, as he had said he would come, to destroy those murderers, and to burn up their city. It was the coming, not in his own visible person, but by the instrumentality of the Roman armies, to lay waste Jerusalem, to overthrow the temple, and to scatter the people. He had wept over the city, but his tears had been disregarded; he would have gathered her children. together, and protected them, but they would not; the day of grace was past, and the day of wrath succeeded; the prophetic warning had been derided, and now it was terribly fulfilled; the beautiful city was made a heap, her children were driven

out into all countries, a by-word and a hissing to the nations. This is the coming of the Son of man, which is particularly signified by himself, in the words of our text, and the corresponding parts of the chapter. With the high and shadowy imagery which the prophets had always adopted, and which was common in the east, and yet with a portentous minuteness which could hardly be misinterpreted in the event, he describes the desolation which was to overtake the devoted land. Words cannot be imagined more fraught with the woe and dismay of the scene, than those which, in gloomy and massive figures, sketch the impending destruction. "And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth." The very confusion of dark and hurrying images in that sentence, seems to be a "shadow cast before" by the battle, and the agony and the flight which were coming dreadfully on;for they did come on, as they had been foreseen and foretold, and all that had been spoken was fulfilled. The destruction of Jerusalem, thus manifesting the power and glory of the Son of man by its awful correspondence with his word, prepared the way for