The Second Coming of Christ.
By Albert Weeks
THAT our Lord’s sojourn here, as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, is not the only time he is to manifest himself to the people of earth is evident from many passages of Scripture, prominent among which is Heb. 9:28. “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” His first advent to the earth was with the burden of the sins of all that would accept him as the Messiah. His second is without that burden. It brings salvation to his people. He comes in glory, rejoicing that he is about to reward those for whom he has suffered so much. His breast is filled with that love that prompted him to make the sacrifice he did for a fallen race. That love is reciprocated by his people, who exclaim out of the fullness of their hearts, “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us.” Isa. 25:9. Those “that look for him” are those that receive salvation at his hands. This implies that by some means the people of God will be expecting their Lord’s return. He said, “If I go away, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” It was also said, “This same Jesus, which was taken up from you into Heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven.” But the special directions which place the earnest Christian in the watching, waiting position, are given by our Saviour in answer to the question, “What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” Matt. 24:3. After giving the required signs, he says, “When ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the door.” Verse. 33. The trusting ones see that the signs are fulfilled, and they are watching, anxiously longing, for their Lord’s return. The wicked are among the scoffers, constituting one of the signs of the last days. “Where is the promise of his coming?” is sounded from the pulpits of those that have “a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof,” to turn them from their sins. “When they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.” 1 Thess. 5:3. As we cannot realize the great sacrifice made for us in our Saviour’s leaving the glory of Heaven, taking upon himself our nature, and suffering, the just for the unjust, so we cannot realize the awful grandeur of his coming in glory. With joy and yet with trembling, does the child of God look for the King of kings and Lord of lords; joy, at the thought of beholding him in whom all our hopes center, trembling, lest we have not clean hands and a pure heart, and therefore cannot stand before his spotless purity. Solemnity rests upon the people of God. How long shall we watch and wait? “Cast not away therefore your confidence; . . . for yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.”