Revelation 16:14-16

"We die daily," said the apostle. This was the life of the early Christians; they went everywhere with their lives in their hands. We are not in this day called to pass through the same fearful persecutions: if we were, the Lord would give us grace to bear the test; but the tests of Christian life, at the present moment, though outwardly not so terrible, are yet more likely to overcome us than even those of the fiery age. We have to bear the sneer of the world-that is little; its...

A thief comes only where he is not expected. His great interest is that people should be off their guard. Where there is watchfulness, there is no opening for him. Our Lord comes as a thief upon the world, because the world has no expectation of him. The world has no more thought of his coming than it has of the coming of Socrates or Alexander. This is not, be it understood, because Christ has done anything to keep the world unaware of his coming. He has sent the fullest information to every...