MISSION LECTURES

Northern Advocate, 2 November 1931, Page 7

MISSION LECTURES

THE DOOR OF HOPE. “The door of hope to humanity is the second coming of Christ. This must remain the only solution to all our national and international, internal and political difficulties. But though this event will bring happiness and every good, its benfits are for those only whose earnest desire is not for mere temporal prosperity, but to see the face of the Saviour.” In these words Evangelist Anderson set forth the great hope of the world in his lecture in the Madeira Hall on Sunday evening. The Scripture had declared that “to those who look for Him will He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” (Heb. !»: 22.) While others would see Him (“Every eye shall see Him” —Rev. 1: 7), it was only those who put that spiritual desire for communion with God above every other human or natural inclination who could receive the salvation promised. While it was true that there seemed to be at the present time a very wide expectation of the second coming of Christ, the generally accepted idea seemed to be that He would come to improve and stabilise the fading glories of our wonderful civilisation. This was contrary to Bible doctrine, which revealed that the Kingdom of Christ would “break in pieces and consume” all earthly kingdoms, and itself would stand for ever. (See Dan. 2: 44.) Th failure of our first parents in the Garden of Eden resulted, from a toe great desire for temporal prosperity. The Divine record said that Eve was led to consider the fruit of the forbidden tree “something to be desired to make one wise.” The tempter declared: “Ye shall be as gods,” This was a prize to be greatly coveted, and she did not intend to let the opportunity presented to her escape. Accordingly she partook of that which was forbidden, risking the displeasure of God and setting up a barrier between herself and her beneficent Creator. Adam joined her in this act. The higher nature was subjected to the lower, the spiritual and eternal to the physical and temporal.

This terrible mistake thrust the human race into the chamber of death, and from that prison it had ever since yearned to be free. The second coming of Christ was that escape, and its assurance in the promises of God had opened the' door of, hope to mankind. “The Order of Release,” a painting by Millais in the National Art Gallery, London, depicted the opening of the door of the prison cell and the reunion of the brave Scottish soldier with his wife and babe. The joy of that unexpected, yet hoped for, reunion, so ably ■pnetared on the artist’s canvas, could be only a faint foreshadower of the release of God’s earthy family from the travails and sorrows of this present world. The same artist had pictured the “Martyr of Solway,” that heroic maiden bound to the stake, while the incoming tide, gradually rising, left her beautiful form a floating corpse. With patient determination she and all the other martyrs held on by faith to the promise of the resurrection at the coming of Jesus. Martha and Mary expected their brother to rise “in the resurrection at the last day.” (John II: 24.) To even faintly picture the glorious pageantry of that grand event that would unite in one unbroken family the faithful from every land and from every age, bringing back the human race into that personal touch with God which was lost in consequence of sin, would be altogether beyond the most vivid imagination until the reality appeared.