far I think is clear. It is when we come to speak of the time of our
Lord's return that our difficulties begin. It appears to me impossible
to doubt that the first Christians were looking for the immediate return
of our Lord to the earth. At one time even St. Paul seems to have
expected Him within his own life-time. Nor does this fact in itself
cause us any serious perplexity. What does perplex us is to find in the
Gospels language attributed to Christ which apparently makes Him a
supporter of this mistaken view. _E.g._, we have these three separate
sayings, recorded in St. Matthew's Gospel: "But when they persecute you
in this city, flee into the next; for verily I say unto you, Ye shall
not have gone through the cities of Israel, till the Son of Man be come"
(x. 23); "Verily I say unto you, There be some of them that stand here,
which shall in no wise taste of death, till they see the Son of Man
coming in His kingdom" (xvi. 28); "Verily I say unto you, This
generation shall not pass away, till all these things be accomplished"
(xxiv. 34). This seems plain enough; and if we are to take the words as
they stand, we seem to be shut up to the conclusion that our Lord was
mistaken, that He ventured on a prediction which events have falsified.
Let us see if this really be so. I leave, for the moment, the words I
have quoted in order to cite other words which point in a quite
different direction.

To begin with, we have the emphatic statement: "But of that day and hour
knoweth no one, not even the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the
Father only." We remember also Christ's words to His disciples, on the
eve of the Ascension, "It is not for you to know times or seasons, which
the Father hath set within His own authority." There is, further, a
whole class of sayings, exhortations, and parables, which seem plainly
to involve a prolonged Christian era, and, consequently, the
postponement to a far distant time, of the day of Christ's return. Thus,
there are the passages which speak of the preaching of the gospel to the
nations beyond: "Wheresoever the gospel shall be preached throughout the
whole world, that also which this woman hath done shall be spoken of for
a memorial of her" (Mark xiv. 9); "This gospel of the kingdom shall be
preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and
then shall the end come" (Matt. xxiv. 14). There is the parable which
tells of the tarrying of the bridegroom till even the wi