The Blessed Hope | AdventAI

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 14, 1907

“The Blessed Hope”

In the Quarterly Journal of Prophecy (London, 1851) we find an excellent article with this title, from which we take the following:—

When Christ comes, there will be “a revelation of God.” It will be “a morning without clouds,” a day of resplendent glory. Then the understanding will be clear, the memory retentive; the eye will then be satisfied with seeing and the ear with hearing. Increase of knowledge will not increase sorrow then; but every new discovery in heavenly science will bring new tides of joy into the soul. The believer desires perfect purity. This is secured to him by God’s promise, and will be realized at the coming of Jesus. “When he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” This hope of being perfectly holy is a lively hope; it stirs up the soul now to purify itself even as Christ is pure. Perfect happiness is also anticipated by the believer. To desire to be happy is natural to fallen man; but, alas! in what foolish ways does he seek to gratify his desires, and to realize his hopes! If we ask the worldly man in what happiness consists, he will talk of health, wealth, honor, and worldly estates, and tell us that if he could have all these, have plenty of them, and that forever, he would be happy. But this cannot be. Time and death sternly forbid it; and even if it could, the soul of man could not be satisfied with them. But let these words be considered as referring to spiritual things, and let these have the impress of eternity upon them, and we have indeed all the elements of happiness. When the Lord Jesus comes to gather his people to himself, he will give to both soul and body perfect and perpetual health; he will enrich them with the treasures of eternity; raise them up to the highest honors; introduce them to the whole family in heaven, not one of whom shall ever die; and, above all, he will make them heirs of God and joint heirs with himself forever. . . .

If, at the second coming of the Saviour, all that the saints expect and desire will be fully realized, it follows that they should constantly look for him. “Looking for that blessed hope” should be descriptive of every saint of God. It should be the habit of their minds. They should ever realize a settled conviction that Christ will come again, and that he may come soon. This was evidently the habitual frame of the primitive saints, and it is a very important inquiry, how saints may now attain to a similar habit of mind, or state of thought and feeling. Let there be a diligent study of his own Word, without testing the same by human systems—a simple dependence on his merits, ever cherishing the thought that he gave himself for us. Connected with these, there should be delight in his person and offices; and if the good Spirit work in us this disposition to meditate on truth, to repose under the cross, and to delight in the Saviour, we shall then desire his company, desire to see him as he is. We shall not look with suspicion and dread upon the doctrine of his coming, but with the deepest interest and the liveliest hope. We shall see God’s highest glory and man’s deliverance bound up with his coming, and shall not wish it delayed. . . .

This looking will be a most powerful antidote, as well as a profitable employment. If our eyes are employed in looking on proper subjects, we shall be preserved from seeing evil. The baits of sin, the shadows of earth, will have no attraction for those who are conversant with the glories of the Coming One. For all distracting and discouraging, as well as decoying things, looking unto and looking for Jesus is an antidote. There are three things which sometimes dismay,—looking within on our own hearts, round upon our enemies, and forward to what is coming upon the world. Look in, and if your sin and guilt dismay, look back upon the cross. Look round, and when oppressed by the sight, look up to the throne of the Mediator. Look forward to the coming storm, and then look beyond it. Yes, beyond the great image (Daniel 2) is the everlasting kingdom. Beyond the reign of the beasts and the crushing tyranny of the little horn, is the reign of the Son of man and his saints. Daniel 7. Beyond the troublous ocean of time, lies the continent of eternal glory, all bright with God’s own light. Beyond the reign of sorrow, trial, and conflict, rise the turrets of the New Jerusalem, where there shall be no more sorrow, tears, nor death. O believer, bind to thy heart the glorious fact, the Blessed One is coming to abolish evil and introduce blessing. Hope, then, evermore in him.