his sort of expectancy, and the
expectancy becomes the controlling thing.

It was this sort of expectancy that made Abraham a pilgrim at
seventy-five, and that grew deep the pilgrim trait of patient endurance
through the weary twilight years till the promised heir came, and even
beyond that, wove the finest texture into his character when the
severest test came.

It was this expectancy that drew Moses away from the court life of
Egypt, and the possible prospect of wearing imperial purple, to become
the leader of a straggling crowd of slaves. And it held him steady on
through long years, wilderness travel, criticism, and non-appreciation,
on and on, till Nebo's top was climbed. He endured as seeing Him who was
invisible to the unseeing eyes of the crowds at His side.

Such expectancy has steadied every leader for God, in these old pages
from first to last, young Joseph in the dungeon, Joshua in the glare of
the limelight, into which he was suddenly thrust, and ruddy-faced
singing David fleeing and hiding for his life from the javelin of Saul.
It was the clear-seeing eye of Isaiah and Jeremiah in the homeland, and
of Ezekiel and Daniel among the weeping exiles, that kept the heart of
the nation warm with the vision of what was surely coming. The thrill of
expectancy runs through the pages of this old Hebrew classic. Its light
is never out of the eye, nor its alluring out of earshot.

When Jesus walked among men expectation ran high. When He was killed the
gloom of the three days was the gloom of a bright light suddenly put
out. The darkness was intensified by the light that had been shining.
Then there came a new sort of expectancy, higher, finer, of the inner
spirit. This Jesus was coming back, in all the glory of the old
prophetic vision, made realer by the personal touch these men knew, and
this new expectancy puts all the paper of the New Testament a-tremble
with delight. It is the light that lighteth every page and epistle,
every contested path of witness, and every hour of suffering because of
faith.

The Church of these New Testament pages is _a watching Church_. The
expectancy of the Lord Jesus' return is the north star of their sky. It
never swerves. All the rest revolves around it. They see everything else
in relation to this. Their going into all the world and preaching to
every creature was not simply for men's conversion: that surely: but
beyond that, it was to bring the Christ back for the next step in