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The Jews, with carnal spirit, were continually saying to Jesus, "Master, we would see a sign from Thee." They were refused. But to His people He does give signs — distinct, striking, and unmistakable — signs which constitute at once the seal and epitome of the truths for which they stand.

I. THE SIGN OF CHRIST'S HUMILIATION. "This shall be a sign unto you" etc. (Luke 2:12). A most disappointing sign this must have been to the shepherds, if they shared the current expectation of a regal and triumphant Messiah. A sign of exquisite tenderness and attractiveness to us.

II. The sign of Christ's GLORY. Our Lord, in answer to the question of the disciples, "What shall be the sign of Thy coming," etc., sketches a solemn prophetic picture of the events that are to precede it — the apostasies, and wars, and famines, and tribulations — and then finishes with this as the final omen, "And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in the heavens." Vast conjecture and speculation have been awakened as to the nature of this sign. The many descriptions of Christ's coming given in Scripture agree in one particular, that He comes in clouds. Examine this sign, and seek to interpret it .... As in the sign of Christ's first coming there were marks of glory accompanying the marks of humiliation, so in the sign of His second coming there will be marks of His humiliation accompanying the marks of His glory. Both signs are true, they shine on the pages of prophecy as we read, like the dazzling lenses of a revolving lighthouse, first one and then the other; now the glory and now the humiliation; now the suffering and now the conquest. The one has been fulfilled. Glory, then, in the accomplishment of the one. Watch for the appearing of the other. "What I say-unto you I say unto all — Watch."

(A. J. Gordon.)

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KJV: 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 heavens shall be shaken:

WEB: But immediately after the oppression of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken;