An Evening Time With the Church

Our present purpose is to evince that the present time we live in is an evening time. We would have you attentively consider the signs of the time; and surely if you do so, it will appear too evident that it is an evening time, a dark time, an evil time with the church of God. And to assist you herein we would represent some of the signs of an evening time in the church. Seeing the Spirit of God expresses the sad case of a people by an evening time, He hereby allows us to allude to the phrase in representing the same. The signs that we mention then shall be gathered from that illustration, so that they may be the better fixed upon your memories when they are expressed by such things as are obvious to everybody who can distinguish between evening and morning.

Now of these signs there are two sorts: (1) Some that show that a dark evening is approaching: (2) Some that show that the present time is an evening time.

First, there are signs that not only show forth much darkness present, but that a darker evening time is hastening on, such as these following:

1. It is a sign that bodes an evening time when the shadows are waxing long. While the sun is high the shadows are short, but the lower the sun is the longer the shadows are. So here, my friends, it is a sign of an evening time coming upon the church when empty shadows are growing long, and of more account than substantial religion. When a man’s shadow is two or three times longer than himself, it says the sun is low and the night is near. Is it not so in a spiritual sense, when professors have much more of the form of godliness than of the power thereof, more of the shadow of religion than the substance of it? Some indeed have not so much as the form or shadow of religion either in their families or closets, which says that it is quite dark with them and that they are destitute of the light of the knowledge of Christ; for where there is no light there is no shadow at all, all is black darkness there. Or they have a shadow of devotion and no more, or little more, which says that the light they have is a declining light, and that a dark evening is coming on. When the church is in a thriving state and the sun high in her firmament, the shadows of empty forms, superstitious ceremonies, and human inventions are cut short; yea, and cut off, as you know they were solemnly renounced and abjured among us in our covenanting days. But when the shadows are turning long again, many standing up for them and few appearing against them, but rather standing for nothing but mere shadows in the church of God, themselves have a name to live but are dead. When this, I say, obtains universally, it bespeaks an evening time.

2. It is a sign that bodes an evening time when laborers are fast returning from their labor. If you

see those who labor in the field returning home from their work, you conclude that the evening time is at hand. So when in the church of God many faithful laborers in God’s vineyard are fast taken home to heaven from their labor on earth, it is a sign that evening time is approaching. As the removal of the godly in general is a sign of an evening of judgment coming, they being taken away from the evil to come; so the removal of eminent laborers in God’s vineyard in particular, bodes an evening time. When Lots are taken out of Sodom, it presages a shower of wrath. Methuselah was taken away the year before the Flood; Ambrose was removed before the ruin of Italy; Luther before the wars of Germany; and many eminent laborers has the Lord of late removed in this land. We may only thence conclude that when Noahs are taken into their arks, it betokens a deluge, and that God gathers His harvest before the winter storm and calls home laborers before the dark night comes on.

3. It is a sign that bodes an evening time when men begin generally to be heavy and sleepy-headed. For as they that sleep, sleep in the night, so when men begin to fall napping, it shows that the night is coming on. Thus when universal security and spiritual sleep and slothfulness begin to seize a church, it betokens a night of judgment approaching. We find all the virgins, both wise and foolish, slumber and sleep before the midnight cry was made. When people are saying, “Peace, peace, then sudden destruction cometh.” There are many symptoms of sleep and security about us, and we are not likely to be awakened till the midnight cry of the Lord’s coming in a way of judgment. Neither will that cry awaken a secure generation unless the Lord come powerfully with it.

4. It is a sign of an evening time coming when the dew begins to fall. We find the Lord speaking to His sleeping church in these terms: “Open to Me, for My head is filled with the dew, and my locks with the drops of the night” (Song 5:2), intimating what He suffered for her, even the dew and drops of the divine wrath and vengeance. Which by the way, is one of the grand motives why we ought to open our hearts to Him, who exposed Himself to the wrath of God for us. But now I say, when the dew begins to fall, it betokens an evening time. So when the dew and drops of God’s judgments begin to fall upon a church, it bodes a darker evening time approaching; especially if these lesser drops of judgment have not the proper effect upon them, to awaken and quicken, but they rather remain incorrigible. For as a physician, when lesser potions will not work, prescribes a stronger, so small judgments contemned are harbingers to usher in greater: “If by these ye will not be reformed, saith the Lord, then will I punish you seven times more for your iniquities” (Lev. 26:23, 24). How many drops of the night have been falling for some time upon us, is evident to all that have their eyes open; yes, to common observers. Not only the death of many gracious men, but also the great departure of the divine glory: the wide rent and division of the church; besides many temporal judgments, and more especially spiritual judgments—blindness of mind, hardness of heart, barrenness under the gospel, and innumerable drops of dew that have fallen. Do not these prognosticate any evening time?

5. It is a sign of an evening time approaching when the air becomes exceeding cold. When the sun being away, the air grows cold, it says the dark night is coming on. Even so when iniquity abounds, the love of many waxeth cold. This coldness of Christian love to God and men is a certain forerunner of a darker evening time of calamity. Ephesus fell from her first love, and the candlestick was taken out of its place. When Laodicea became lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, then God spued her out of His mouth; that is, rejected her with abhorrence. Perhaps there was never a colder air than that which the present generation breathes in. Love to God and His people, zeal for God and His glory, that sometime ago warmed the breasts of Christians, is turned to such a cool in the evening that the coldness of the air prognosticates a storm.

6. It is a sign of an evening time approaching when the clouds and sky begin to grow ruddy, as it were tinctured with scarlet. Whatever fair days it may signify afterward, yet it is a sign of an evening, in the first place, to be at hand. So when dry clouds by reflection of the sunbeams, make a fair appearance and no more—I mean when hypocrisy is universal and professors are nothing but clouds without water (Jude 12), having a glittering splendid outside, but empty and destitute of the Spirit; and when at the same time the great ones of the land, whether in church or state that fly above others like clouds, instead of being useful for watering those that are below them, are turned to nothing but red sky, bright empty nothings having no moisture in them, no grace; and indeed, when the great ones of a land are given up of God and become generally graceless and destitute of religion, it is a symptom of an evening time of wrath. When King Saul is rejected of God and runs to the devil, consulting with the witch of Endor, then he and Israel fall upon the mountain of Gilboa. When Zedekiah is given up, with his nobles, to rebel against the King of Babylon and break covenant, then he and his people are carried away captive to Bayblon. When David was so far left destitute of the Spirit of God that his heart was lifted up in pride to number the people, then a severe stroke from God lights upon Israel. Alas, when great men, nobility and gentry, are left of God and turned sensual, not having the Spirit, what are they but so many ruddy, glaring clouds from whom God is withdrawn wholly, and so many signs of a dark night coming on? (To Be Continued)

Deze tekst is geautomatiseerd gemaakt en kan nog fouten bevatten. Digibron werkt voortdurend aan correctie. Klik voor het origineel door naar de pdf. Voor opmerkingen, vragen, informatie: contact.

Op Digibron -en alle daarin opgenomen content- is het databankrecht van toepassing. Gebruiksvoorwaarden. Data protection law applies to Digibron and the content of this database. Terms of use.

Printen