Matthew XXIV

i. And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple.

2. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.

The disciples showed the present; Jesus showed the future; this difference will perpetually distinguish the teacher from the taught. The minute manner in which Christ foretells the destruction of Jerusalem would seem to be foreign to the gentleness of His nature: this is the impression conveyed by a superficial idea of gentleness; a profounder conception recognises gentleness as an aspect of justice, and justice as a necessity wrought out by an attempt to adjust the balance which the moral universe has lost.

From the third verse we have a detailed statement of the signs of Christ’s coming and of the end of the world; and as the statement is one of extraordinary interest, whose inter-T pretation has elicited the most conflicting opinions, we shall cite the testimony of a learned council, so that preachers may have material for homiletic outlines. The various expositors have not kept strictly to Christ’s own order of prediction, so that we must suffer the inconvenience of a little transposition.

This Gospel shall be preached for a witness to all nations, and then shall the end be. “That is the end of Jerusalem, before the destruction whereof the Gospel was preached throughout the world. Witness Paul, saying, Their sound hath gone out into all the earth; and again, The Gospel is preached to every creature under heaven, so that ye may see it running from Jerusalem into Spain. And if one only apostle, Paul, spread the Gospel so far, what shall we think did all the rest? And this was a great miracle for the convincing of the unbelieving Jews before their destruction, for the Gospel to be preached in all parts of the world, in twenty or thirty years at the most; if this would not move them to believe, nothing could.” — (Chrysostom.) “This must not be understood as done by the apostles, for there are many barbarous nations of Africa amongst whom the Gospel was never yet preached, as we may gather by such as have been captives there. This therefore remaineth yet to be accomplished; and because it is a secret when the world shall be filled with the Gospel, it is a secret likewise when shall be the day of judgment, before which this must be.” — (Augustine.) “That is before the end of the world, which hath not yet been; for many, not only barbarous nations, but even of our own, have not yet heard the Gospel.” — (Origen.) “Notwithstanding these persecutions, there should be a universal publication of the glad tidings of the kingdom, for a testimony to all nations. God would have the iniquity of the Jews published everywhere, before the heavy stroke of His judgments should fall upon them; that all mankind, as it were, might be brought as witnesses against their cruelty and obstinacy in crucifying and rejecting the Lord Jesus.” — (Adam Clarke.) “The Gospel had been preached through the whole orbis tcrrarum, and every nation had received its testimony, before the destruction of Jerusalem; see Col. i. 6, 23; 2 Tim. iv. 17. This was necessary, not only as regarded the Gentiles, but to give to God’s people the Jews, who were scattered among all these nations, the opportunity of receiving or rejecting the preaching of Christ. But in the wider sense, the words imply that the Gospel shall be preached in all the world, literally taken, before the great and final end come. The apostasy of the latter days, and the universal dispersion of missions, are the two great signs of the end drawing near.” — (Alford.) “The Gospel is not merely to be preached to the nations, but to be preached faithfully, even unto martyrdom; it will be a witness unto them, and then it will be a witness concerning them and against them.” — (Lange.)

When ye see the abomination of desolation. “This was the state of him that should destroy the city, which he after the destruction placed there within. O new thing and unheard of! The Romans, with an innumerable army, overcame the infinite multitude of the Jews, but are themselves overcome by twelve poor men! “— (Chrysostom.)” Some do not amiss understand hereby the evils themselves, for we read of evil days in the Scriptures, not because the days are evil, but the accidents of those days; which are said to be shortened, either because God giveth strength to bear them, or because they are lessened. Some again understand that those days should be shortened by the sun going his compass more speedily in a shorter time.” — (Augustine.) “The prophet spake this of Anti-Christ’s time; it is called abomination because he should take unto him the honour of God, and the abomination of desolation because he should waste the

T 2 country with destruction and slaughters; standing where it should not, that is, in the place where God was wont to be worshipped, and to have prayers offered unto Him, for there shall Anti-Christ be worshipped of infidels.” — (Hilary.) “Most interpreters refer this to Daniel xi.; but they are deceived, for neither is the same word precisely used, nor was any other thing there foretold but the profanation of the temple by Antiochus. Wherefore this hath relation to Daniel xii., where an utter cessation of Divine worship and sacrificing in that temple is foretold after a certain term of days. It is called abomination of desolation, because a general ruin of the whole commonwealth and kingdom shall come therewith.” — (Calvin.)

For as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west. “By the lightning, understand the truth, which is said to pass from east to west, because it is apparent from all parts of the Scriptures, from the beginning of Christ even to His passion, which is His west, or from the beginning of the world to the last writings of the apostles; or else the east is the law, the west is the end of the law, John’s prophecy.” — (Origen.) “Hereby is set forth a distinction between the Church of Christ and assemblies of heretics: the Church is spread all over the whole world, like the lightning, clearly to be seen; the assemblies of heretics are but in some corners and private conventicles.” — (Augustine.) “The coming of the Lord in the end, even as that in the type was, shall be a plain unmistakable fact, understood of all; — and like that also, sudden and all-pervading. But here again the full meaning of the words is only to be found in the final fulfilment of them. The lightning, lighting both ends of heaven at once, seen of all beneath it, can only find its full similitude in His personal coming, whom every eye shall see.” — (Alford.)