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OUR LORD'S RETURN

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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 2, 1868

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 31, No. 24.

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OUR LORD'S RETURN.

The Scriptures present it as the great hope of the church, Titus ii, 13; 1 Peter i, 13; Job xix, 25-27; Isaiah xxv, 9; Col. iii, 4; 2 Tim. iv, 8.
They give it as a motive—
to take up testimony for Christ, Luke ix, 26.
to heavenly-mindedness, Phil. iii, 20.
to moderation, Phil. iv, 5.
to mortification of the flesh, Col. iii, 4, 5.
to faithfulness in God's service, 1 Tim. vi, 14; 2 Tim. iv, 1, 2, 8; 1 Peter v, 4.
to soberness and godly living, Titus ii, 12, 13.
to perseverance, Heb. x, 37.
to patience, James v, 7, 8.
to holy conversation and godliness, 2 Peter iii, 10, 11.
to diligence and activity, Matt. xxv, 14-30; Luke xix, 13; 2 Peter iii, 14.
to hold fast what we have in Christ, Rev. ii, 25; iii, 11.
They give it as a motive—
to carefulness in intercourse with the world, Rev. xvi, 15.
to fraternal affection, 1 Thess. iii, 12, 13.
to abide in Christ, 1 John ii, 28.
They refer to it as a subject of peculiar comfort under bereavement, 1 Thess. iv, 18; 2 Tim. i, 5, 7; ii, 12; Isa. xxx, 18.
They employ it as an encouragement to labor for souls, and as a subject of solemn appeal in the charge to ministers, 1 Cor. i, 4-7; 1 Thess. ii, 19, 20; 2 Tim. iv, 1.
They direct attention to it as corrective of, and support under, censoriousness and judging of others, 1 Cor. iv, 3-5.
They speak of it as a thing which should possess absorbing importance and interest to all who desire to be prepared for the eternal kingdom, Matt. xxiv, 42-51; xxv, 13; Mark xiii, 33-37; Luke xxi, 34-36; 1 Thess. v, 4-6.
We are to pray for it, Matt. vi, 10; Luke xi, 2; Can. viii, 14; Rev. xx, 22.
We are to wait patiently for it, 1 Thess. i, 10; 2 Thess. iii, 5; 1 Cor. i, 7; Isaiah xxv, 9.
We are to expect it, and look for it continually, Phil. iii, 20; Titus ii, 13; Heb. ix, 28; 2 Peter iii, 12, 14; Rev. i, 7.
We are to love it, and anticipate it with cheerful and fond desire, 2 Tim. iv, 8; Rom. viii, 23; 2 Cor. v, 2; Titus ii, 13.
We are told to keep ourselves in constant readiness for it, Matt. xxiv, 44; Mark xiii, 33, 36; Luke xii, 35, 36, 40; xxi, 34; Rom. xiii, 11-14; 1 Thess. v, 6; Rev. xvi, 15.
We are to provide ourselves with oil in our vessels, Matt. xxv, 1-13.
To lay out our talents for the Master, Matt. xxiv, 14-30; Luke xix, 12-17.
To be thoughtful of his afflicted people, Matt. xxv, 31-46.
To have on the wedding garment, Matt. xxii, 11.
The doctrine of the speedy coming again of our Lord Jesus Christ, and what connects with it, has a very prominent place in the Holy Scriptures. There is not a writer who does not speak of it, and scarcely a book in the Bible, however brief, which does not recur to it again and again.
The apostles and first Christians constantly employed this doctrine as one of the most powerful instruments for awakening men's consciences, for inciting to Christian duty and fidelity, for restraining people from sin, and for comforting and establishing believers amid their trials and privations.
The church of our times has drifted far away from the primitive method of dealing with this subject. The apostles could not write even a short letter to a Christian friend without introducing it, and there is not a church-address in the New Testament which does not repeatedly refer to it; and yet we may read dozens and dozens of pastoral addresses, pious books, and evangelical tracts of our day, without being able to learn from them that there is any such idea among Christians as that the Saviour is to come again to this world! We have ourselves taken up volume after volume of approved and widely-circulated modern sermons, in which there is not an allusion to the subject. Alas! for modern Christianity.—Millennial Concordance.