The One Great Hope by Rev. Alexander Maclaren, D. D.

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 26, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 13.

The One Great Hope.

By Rev. Alexander Maclaren, D. D.

CHRIST shall so come in like manner as he went into heaven. Acts 1:9-11. Again shall the summons ring out. Again shall he come arrayed in flashing brightness, and the visible robes of his imperial Majesty. Again shall he appear mighty in battle, when "in righteousness he shall judge and make war." For a Christian one great memory fills the past—Christ has come; and one great hope brightens the else waste future—Christ shall come. That hope has been far too much left to be cherished only by those who hold a particular opinion as to the chronology of unfulfilled prophecy. But it should be to every Christian heart "the blessed hope," even the appearing of the glory of him who has come in the past. He is with and in us, in the present. He will come in the future "in his glory, and shall sit upon the throne of his glory." All our pardon and hope of God's love depends upon that great fact in the past, that "the Lord was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory." Our purity which will fit us to dwell with God, our present blessedness, all our power for daily strife, and our companionship in daily loneliness, depend on the present fact that he dwells in our hearts by faith, the seed of all good, and the conquering antagonist of every evil. And the one light that fills the future with hope, peaceful because assured, streams from that most sure promise that he will come again, sweeping from the highest heavens, on his head the many crowns of universal monarchy, in his hand the weapons of all conquering power, and none shall need to ask, "Who is this King of glory?" for every eye shall know him, the Judge upon his throne, to be the Christ of the cross. Open the doors of your hearts to him, as he sues for entrance now in the meekness of his patient love, that on you may fall in that day of the coming of the King, the blessing of the servants "who wait for their returning Lord," that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.—Rev. Alexander Maclaren, D. D.