formerly to individuals, so now to the Church, two sources of danger are pointed out:

internal from heresies ('false prophets') and the decay of faith,139 and external, from

persecutions, whether Judaic and from their own kindred, or from the secular powers

throughout the world. But, along with these two dangers, two consoling facts are also

pointed out. As regards the persecutions in prospect, full Divine aid is promised to

Christians - alike to individuals and to the Church. Thus all care and fear may be

dismissed: their testimony shall neither be silenced, nor shall the Church be suppressed

or extinguished; but inward joyousness, outward perse verance, and final triumph, are

secured by the Presence of the Risen Saviour with, and the felt indwelling of the Holy

Ghost in His Church. And, as for the other and equally consoling fact: despite the

persecution of Jews and Gentiles, before the End cometh 'this the Gospel of the

Kingdom shall be preached in all the inhabited earth for a testimony to all the nations.'140

This, then, is really the only sign of 'the End' of the present 'Age.'

3. From these general predictions, the Lord proceeds, in the third part of this

Discourse,141 to advertise the Disciples of the great historic fact immediately before

them, and of the dangers which might spring from it. In truth, we have here His answer

to their question, 'When shall these things be?'142 not, indeed, as regards the when, but

the what of them. And with this He conjoins the present application of His general

warning regarding false Christs, given in the first part of this Discourse.143 The fact of

which He now, in this third part of His Discourse, advertises them, is the destruction of

Jerusalem. Its twofold dangers would be - outwardly, the difficulties and perils which at

that time would necessarily beset men, and especially the members of the infant-

Church; and, religiously, the pretensions and claims of false Christs or prophets at a

period when all Jewish thinking and expectancy would lead men to anticipate the near

Advent of the Messiah. There can be no question, that from both these dangers the

warning of the Lord delivered the Church. As directed by him, the members of the

Christian Church fled at an early period of the siege.144 of Jerusalem to Pella, while the

words in which He had told that His Coming would not be in secret, but with the

brightness of that lightning which shot across the sky, prevented not only their being

deceived, but perhaps e ven the record, if not the rise of many who otherwise would

have deceived them. As for Jerusalem, the prophetic vision initially fulfilled in the days

of Antiochus  145 would once more, and now fully, become reality, and the abomination of

desolation146 stand in the Holy Place. This, together with tribulation to Israel,

unparalleled in the terrible past of its history, and unequalled even in its bloody future.

Nay, so dreadful would be the persecution, that, if Divine mercy had not interposed for

the sake of the followers of Christ, the whole Jewish race that inhabited the land would

have been swept away.  147 But on the morrow of that day no new Maccabee would arise,

no Christ come, as Israel fondly hoped; but over that carcase would the vultures

gather;148 and so through all the Age of the Gentiles, till converted Israel should raise

the welcoming shout: 'Blessed be He that cometh in the Name of the Lord!'