Untitled article | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, December 31, 1867

THE TWO ADVENTS.

He came not with his heavenly crown, His scepter clad with power; His coming was in feebleness, The infant of an hour; An humble manger cradled first; The virgin's holy birth, And lowing herds companioned there The Lord of heaven and earth!

He came not with the robe of wrath, With arm outstretched to slay, But on the darkling paths of earth To pour celestial day, To guide in peace the wandering feet, The broken heart to bind, And bear upon the painful cross The sins of all mankind.

And thou hast borne them, Saviour meek, And therefore unto thee, In humbleness and gratitude, Our hearts shall offered be: And gently as the festered bough That on thine altar lies, Our souls and bodies shall be thine A living sacrifice.

Yet once again thy sign shall be Upon the heavens displayed, And earth and its inhabitants Be terribly afraid; For not in weakness wilt thou come, Our woes, our sins, to bear, But girt with all thy Father's might, His vengeance to declare.

The terrors of that awful day, Oh! who shall understand? Or who abide when thou in wrath Shalt lift thy holy hand? The earth shall quake, the sea shall roar, The sun in heaven grow pale; But thou hast sworn, and will not change, Thy faithful shall not fail.

Then grant us, Saviour, so to pass Our time of trembling here, That when upon the clouds of heaven, Thy glory shall appear, Uplifting high our joyful heads In triumph we may rise, And enter with thine angel-train, Thy temple in the skies!

—London Wesleyan Magazine.