I propose to call the evidence of an unwilling witness, and to ask the scoffer himself to bear his “testimony to the truth” against which he scoffs.  There is no better evidence than that which is given unwillingly—than that of a man who is put into the witness-box in order to prove one thing, and when closely examined is compelled by the force of truth to prove the opposite.  Now as a general rule the scoffers desire to dishonour the Scriptures; they ridicule its statements, and deny its inspiration.  But I am not sure that, if carefully examined, they will not be found to confirm the Word.  Let us then carefully study their evidence, and may God the Holy Ghost bring it home to their hearts and our own!

But before we examine the modern scoffers, we must turn to what the Word of God has said respecting them.  Rather more than eighteen hundred years ago the apostle Peter wrote two letters, the first addressed to scattered strangers, and the second to those who had “obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”  In this second Epistle he gave a divine prophecy to all such persons, and told them from God what they were to p. 60expect in the latter days.  He taught them quite clearly that when they were approaching the end they were not to expect to be like some beautiful ship (with its sails set and its flags flying) sailing gallantly into the harbour, with a bright sunshine, a flowing tide, and a prosperous breeze; but rather like some weather-beaten craft, battered by the storm, beating up against the gale, and almost overwhelmed by the breakers on the bar.  And it teaches also that one of the trials of those last days will arise from scoffers.  As in navigation the chart may teach that there are dangerous rocks near the harbour mouth, so the prophecy says that when we draw near to the coming of the Lord, there will arise certain persons who will not be afraid even to scoff at the revelation of God.  Let us first examine the prophecy, and then we shall be prepared to compare it with the fact.  It assures us then of the fact that there will be scoffers, and it gives us a fourfold description of their character.

We shall find it in 2 Peter iii. 3–5: “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.  For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water.”

(1.)  They will scoff.

Now, as a general rule, a scoffer is not a reasoner.  It p. 61requires some knowledge and logical power to argue, but any fool can scoff.  In fact, it seems the peculiar attribute of folly; for we are distinctly told that “fools make a mock of sin.”  Now in this passage it is clearly foretold that in the last days men will scoff.  But when St. Peter wrote the words he must have thought it almost impossible.  For let any man look around at the visible effects of sin—the ruin, the misery, the wretched homes, the miserable wives, the pitiable children, the sickness, poverty, crime, violence, and every species of abomination resulting from sin—and can any wise man scoff at sin?

Or look at the majesty of God, at His omnipotence, His omnipresence, His omniscience, His infinitude, His holiness, His sin-abhorring character, and it seems impossible that there should be anyone bold enough to presume to scoff at the Most High God.

Or look at His love in Christ Jesus; in the provision of such a salvation for sinners such as we are; in providing such a Lamb for the burnt-offering; in making to the guilty such an offer of such a salvation on such terms of magnificent generosity, and can it be possible that any man should scoff at that?  Will they scoff at the love that prompted it, at the sacrifice made for it, or at the pardon and life presented through it?  We might as well expect to see the condemned criminal scoffing at a free pardon from the Queen.

But notwithstanding all that, the prophecy says plainly that in the last days there shall be scoffers.

p. 62(2.)  The next clause throws further light on their character; for it teaches that they will walk after their own lusts.  Now “lust” does not mean merely the low, vicious, depraved passion of the profligate; but the word in old English expresses exactly the meaning of the Greek—the appetite or will of the natural man.  A person, therefore, may be what “the world” calls a moral man, and still be walking after his own lust.  Such characters are described by the prophet Isaiah in the words, “We have turned every one to his own way.” (Chap. liii. 6.)  And again, chap. lxvi. 3, “Yea, they have chosen their own ways.”  They make of themselves their own god.  They set up their own understanding as their teacher, and their own will as their law.  Their religion consists in one letter of the alphabet, that one most absorbing letter, “I.”  “I know,” “I think” “I choose,” “I will,” “I am,” and “I act as I think proper;” and thus it is that their own will becomes their only god.  Oh what a miserable god!  Oh, what a contrast to the life of him who knows his Saviour! to the blessedness of the man whose life is hid with Christ in God, and whose daily prayer is, “Thy will be done!”  But though it seem almost impossible, the words of the prophecy are perfectly clear that the rise of such characters will be amongst the anxious trials of the latter days.

(3.)  But this is not all; for the next clause shows they will scoff at the hope of the Advent, and they will say, “Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from p. 63the beginning of the creation.”  This does not mean, “Where shall we find the promise in the Scriptures?” but rather, “What has become of it?  Everything is going on just as it always has done, and He is not come yet.  The winter comes and goes, the sun rises and sets, the business of life goes on as in former days, and the Lord has not yet appeared; so what are we to think of the promise?”  St. Peter points out the true answer to all this; viz., that God’s time must not be measured by man’s scale; for that “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day,” and he might have added that prophecy of our Lord Himself, in which he taught us that everything will go on exactly the same right up to His return; viz., “For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” (Matt. xxiv. 38, 39.)  It is most important that we bear this well in mind; for there is an undoubted tendency in us all to settle down into an undefined feeling that things that have gone on without a change will go on still without a change, and so to allow our hope of the Advent to grow weary, or to burn itself out through delay.  There is this tendency in even the Christian mind, and in all probability there are few amongst us who have not felt the need of watching against the temptation.  So in this prophecy the scoffer is predicted as availing himself of this natural p. 64tendency in our hearts, and turning it against the promises of God; as attacking the Christian in His blessed hope; as striving to shake the faith of believers; and as endeavouring to pull down those who are looking for the Lord to the dreary level of utter hopelessness on which he finds that he himself is standing.  It seems a very cruel thing, and I often think that if I were an infidel I could not endeavour to shake the faith of other men.  It seems a horrible thing, that because a man is without hope himself, he should endeavour to take away hope from others; and a most especially horrible thing that he should endeavour to poison the minds of children, and so harden ............