141. St. Matt. xxiv. 15 -28, and parallels; note especially the language of St. Luke.
142. St. Matt. xxiv. 3.
143. vv. 4, 5.
144. So Eusebius (Hist. Eccl. iii. 5) relates that the Christians of Judĉa fled to Pella, on
the northern boundary of Perĉa in 68 A.D. Comp. also Jos . War iv. 9. 1, v. 10. 1.
145. 2 Macc. vi. 1-9.
146. The quotation from Dan. ix, 27 is neither a literal translation of the original, nor a
reproduction of the LXX. The former would be: 'And upon the wing [or corner] of the
abominations the destroyer.' Our Lord takes the well known Biblical expression in the
general sense in which the Jews took it, that the heathen power (Rome, the abominable)
would bring desolation - lay the city and Temple waste.
147. St. Matt. xxiv. 22.
148. Ver. 28.
4. The Age of the Gentiles,149 'the end of the Age,' and with it the new allegiance of His
now penitent people Israel; 'the sign of the Son of Man in heaven,' perceived by them;
the conversion of all the world, the Coming of Christ, the last Trumpet, the Resurrection
of the dead - such, in most rapid sketch, is the outline which the Lord draws o f His
Coming and the End of the world.
149. vv. 29 -31.
It will be remembered that this had been the second question of the disciples.150 We
again recall, that the disciples did not, indeed, could not have connected, as
immediately subsequent events, the destruction of Jerusalem and His Second Coming,
since he had expressly placed between them the period - apparently protracted - of His
Absence,151 with the many events that were to happen in it - notably, the preaching of
the Gospel over the whole inhabite d earth.152 Hitherto the Lord had, in His Discourse,
dwelt in detail only on those events which would be fulfilled before this generation
should pass.153 It had been for admonition and warning that He had spoken, not for the
gratification of curiosity. It had been prediction of the immediate future for practical
purposes, with such dim and general indication of the more distant future of the Church
as was absolutely necessary to mark her position in the world as one of persecution,
with promise, however, of His Presence and Help; with indication also of her work in the
world, to its terminus ad quem - the preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom to all
nations on earth.
150. St. Matt. xxiv. 3.
151. xxiii. 38, 39.
152. xxiv. 14.
153. ver. 34.
More than this concerning the future of the Church could not have been told without
defeating the very object of the admonition and warning which Christ had exclusively in
view, when answering the question of the disciples. Accordingly, what follows in ver. 29,
describes the history, not of the Church - far less any visible physical signs in the literal
heavens - but, in prophetic imagery, the history of the hostile powers of the world, with
its lessons. A constant succession of empires and dynasties would characterise