Your ShelfYour Projects

The Blessed Hope

9%

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Oct 25, 1906

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 83, No. 43.

Read the full edition

The Blessed Hope

By G. W. Wells

G. W. WELLS
HE is coming, the Saviour of the world is coming again! This thought should fill every Christian’s heart with joy. It has been the long-looked-for, long-hoped-for event of all the past ages. The glorious consummation of all the prophetic utterances is reached in that day. The cruel reign of sin will then cease forever. O day of joy and gladness and rapturous delight!
“My longing heart cries out, O, come! Creation groans for thee! The weary pilgrim sighs, O come! Bring immortality.”
Jesus said to his disciples, shortly before he left this world, “Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterward.” No doubt this statement filled their hearts with sorrow; they did not comprehend its true meaning.
Peter said, “Why can not I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake.” Their love for their Commander was warm and fervent, and they found pleasure in his presence. To cheer their hearts, and to comfort his followers in all future time, he uttered this most assuring promise, “I will come again.” “I go to prepare a place for you,” and “I will come again.” What for?—To “receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” John 14: 1-3.
No promise have we of entering into his presence, of being with him, until “that day.” “Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.” Thank God for the assurance of the resurrection, without which even those “fallen asleep in Christ are perished.”
“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.” These are words of comfort; for those of our loved ones who have fallen asleep in Jesus, and are sweetly resting in “their beds” (Isa. 57: 1-3), now come forth glorified, and they with us are made immortal, “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound; and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” 1 Cor. 15: 52. “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”
If then, as we see by these irrevocable statements, our being with him, our seeing him as he is, our entering into our reward and being made immortal; if the bringing to an end of iniquity and sin, and the ushering in of the reign of righteousness and peace, the gathering together of all the redeemed, yea, the joy of being with him where he is,—if all this is contingent on his second coming, how important that we prepare for, and look forward to, that day of all days! “Looking for that blessed hope, and glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ”—him who made himself a friend of sinners, him whose hand was ever ready to minister to suffering humanity, him whose ear was never deaf to the cry of the unfortunate, him whose lips spoke only pardon and hope. The “chiefest among ten thousand,” the One “altogether lovely,” is coming again. That is his promise.
For six thousand years sin has reigned in the hearts of men and held sway in the earth. O, what rivers of scalding tears, multitudes of broken hearts, and blasted hopes, and ruined lives, this old world has witnessed! But now it is in its last struggle. The King of Peace is soon to come. What will ever stay the deadening tide of intemperance and crime that is blighting the homes and lives of millions? What will ever bring to an end the cruel, thoughtless, heart-sickening oppression of the poor and the needy? What, O what, but the glorious appearing of Jesus? Praise God, that day is “near, it is near, and hasteth greatly.” Glorious will be the deliverance and rich the reward of the faithful in that day, and together the redeemed will join in the universal anthem of praise, saying, “Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and power, and might, be unto our God forever and ever.”
Alpharetta, Ga.