My Lord Delayeth His Coming
By G. B. Thompson
SOMEWHAT recently, in conversation with a gentleman, he said, “Do you believe that Mr. —— believes that the Lord is coming soon?” I replied that he was a member of the church, and had been for several years, and says that he does. He said, “I know that he is a member of the church, and for a number of years has professed to believe in the soon coming of the Lord. He has talked it everywhere, but I do not believe that he believes what he professes. His actions do not so speak; for he already has more of this world than he can really use, and instead of lessening his earthly possessions, as I think a man should who believes what he professes to believe, he is adding on farms, and accumulating in other ways. For one, I do not believe he really believes in the coming of the Lord.” This conversation called forcibly to my mind the words of the Saviour in Matt. 24: 48-51. After giving the signs in the sun, moon, and stars which are to appear as omens of his second coming, he gives some warnings and exhortations to those who will be living at that time, and says, “But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Here is a servant who says, not with his lips, but “in his heart,” that the coming of the Lord is delayed. What is really in the heart is revealed in the actions. We may say we believe the coming of the Lord is near, yet if in our heart we do not really believe it, our actions, what we do, our manner of life, will show what is in the heart. The Lord is coming in this generation: and the generation which is to witness this momentous event is already hoary with age. Have we been saying that we believed this, yet in actions denying it, all our neighbors who are watching us are coming to the conclusion that we do not believe what we profess? Let us prayerfully ponder this question. Suppose you have a neighbor who informs you that he is going to move in a short time to a distant State, yet when you meet him, the principal theme of his conversation is about the place where he lives, and he says but little about his prospective new home. You see him buying more furniture to fit up the home where he is, and from time to time he adds more acres to his farm. He continues to increase the size of his dairy, and buys new and expensive machinery to operate the farm. Would this look as though he expected to move? In seeing all this would you really believe that “in his heart” he was actually intending to emigrate to another State?—Hardly. Well, it is the same with us. Though we may say we expect the Lord to come soon, and that the destruction of all things earthly is at hand, yet if we keep on adding to our earthly treasure, and fastening our hold more firmly on worldly things, our neighbors and friends will correctly conclude that while we say we believe the Lord is soon coming, yet “in our heart” we do not believe it. How is it with us? Does our faithfulness in spiritual things testify to the world that we believe our dear Lord is soon coming? Are we as faithful in attending Sabbath meetings, prayer meetings, and annual convocations where God’s servants meet to seek for strength, as we should be? Are we as faithful as we were years ago? Is our zeal in missionary work such as to impress the world with the fact that we firmly believe that the Lord will come in this generation? Are we sacrificing to extend the work in foreign lands, as those should who believe that the probation of all the world is soon to close? Surely, the time has fully come when every plan and purpose in life should reveal that we are citizens of a heavenly country, and that we expect in a little while to move to that heavenly land.