"IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE TRIBULATION OF THOSE DAYS SHALL THE SUN BE DARKENED, AND

THE MOON SHALL NOT GIVE HER LIGHT, AND THE STARS SHALL FALL FROM HEAVEN, AND THE

POWERS OF THE HEAVEN SHALL BE SHAKEN; AND THEN SHALL APPEAR THE SIGN OF THE SON

OF MAN IN HEAVEN; AND THEN SHALL ALL THE TRIBES OF THE EARTH MOURN AND THEY

SHALL SEE THE SON OF MAN COMING IN THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN WITH POWER AND GREAT

GLORY." -- Matt. xxiv. 29, 30.

No consideration of the word of Prophecy can be satisfactory, which does not give full weight and

importance to the last great prophetic utterance of the gre at prophet Himself. Let us approach it as worthy

of, and as commanding our deepest attention, and closest consideration. We have not before us the

visionary utterances of a mere enthusiast, or the deceptive imaginations of a mere man, but the solemn,

prophetic announcement of "God manifest in the flesh."

Notice, first of all, that we have three records of two great prophecies; one recorded in Luke xxi., and the

other in Matt. xxiv. and Mark xiii. These two statements appear to have been made on different o ccasions, in

different places and under different circumstances; and therefore naturally there is also a difference as to the

their subject-matter.

In point of time, that recorded in Luke xxi. appears to have been spoken first, and in the Temple itself. Luke

xxi. 5, "And as some spake of the Temple He said," &c. It was "on one of those days as He taught the

people in the Temple" (xx. 1), probably on the Tuesday, and before He left the Temple with His disciples.

But that recorded in Matt. xxiv. and Mark xi ii. was uttered "As He said upon the Mount of Olives over

against the Temple," Peter, James, John and Andrew come to Him, and ask Him certain questions privately.

Here, the words of Jesus are the answer to definite questions. "When shall these things be? and what shall

be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world? ("consummation of the age" R.V. margin.) The Lord

therefore tells them and us in this second prophecy, of the events which shall immediately precede and be

the sign of His coming.

Now the first three or four verses of both discourses, and of all the three records are almost identical:--

Matt. xxiv. 4-8, Mark xiii. 5-7, Luke xxi. 8-11. But here a remarkable change occurs which gives us the key to

the right understanding of these prophecies. In Matt. and Mark the Lord goes on to speak of the sorrows of

which those verses were "the beginning" and continues, and develops what He had begun to describe. But

in St. Luke he stops short here; He does not go forward, but goes back to tell us what shall be before all

these things," and for thirteen verses (Luke xxi. 12-24) He speaks of what shall be "BEFORE" "the beginning

of sorrows," and to speak of the then impending destruction of Jerusalem, concluding at verse 24 with the

words "and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." It is

the concluding days of these "times of the Gentiles," which in Matt. and Mark the Lord enlarges on, and

describes the events which lead up to His appearing (Matt. xxiv. 8-28, and Mark xiii. 9-23): and then all three

records again coincide, and culminate in the grand and final "sign" about which the disciples had enquired.

To attempt to harmonize these prophecies without noticing the great diverging point of Luke xxi. 12, is to

attempt the impossible; and the best proof that it is so is the fact that no commentator who treats all three

records as referring to one and the same subject, succeeds in satisfying his own mind, still less the minds of

his readers.

But observing these notes of time, and this key to the change of subject in Luke xxi. 12, we learn that in

Matt. xxiv. and Mark xiii., Jesus does not refer to the destruction of Jerusalem at all, but begins long after

that event, and gives an epitome of the closing in of the last days of the "times of the Gentiles," the days