A PERSONAL COMING A SATISFYING HOPE.
By John L. Wince
Nothing less than a coming in person of the Lord Jesus can satisfy the earnest longing of the Christian literalist. Nothing short of this will meet the demand of his faith and hope. The teachings of inspiration shut him up to this. “Whither I go ye cannot come” was addressed as emphatically to the loving disciples as to caviling Jews. John 13: 33, 7: 34. And “no man hath ascended up to Heaven,” John 3: 13, stands against the notion that patriarch and priest, however good, had gone there, up to the time of this utterance. That is a false theory which pictures men scaling the heights of Heaven and crossing the threshold of the great antitypical holy of holies. The attitude of the true church is like that of ancient Israel standing without, waiting for the high priest to appear with the blessing. With this type in view, Paul wrote: “Unto them that look for Him shall he appear the second time.” Heb. 9: 28. The design of this appearing is the salvation of those looking for him—whose sins he bore. The supposed coming at the siege of Jerusalem (of Universalists), the coming in providences or at death (of popular churches), and the coming in power and providence through all ages of the church (of Bishop Hurd)—none of these answer the description of the apostle. Away with such allegorizings! The personal coming of Christ, as an antecedent event in the future drama of salvation, followed immediately by supernatural gifts and blessings to the church, is the style in which the New Testament especially sets forth the various phases of our glorious hope. All are contingent upon that event. It opens to us the exceeding riches of God’s grace. Do we hope for a resurrection? Paul couples it with the coming of Christ: “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, . . . and the dead in Christ shall rise first;” 1 Thess. 4: 16; “afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.” 1 Cor. 15: 23. All the divisions of the blessed hope stand connected with that event—change of this vile body, eternal life, incorruptibility, crown of righteousness, rest, the kingdom, and glory—all are to be given to us then, not before. The plainly expressed hope of the church, touching the time when she shall enter into the enjoyment and realization of all these things, points to the Lord’s coming. The faith and hope, the conversation and conduct, the attitude and bearing of popular Christianity, contrast strangely with that of the apostolic church. Primitive believers found their only consolation under bereavement in the precious promise of the Lord’s return. For it they watched, and waited, and prayed; looked for, longed for, and loved his appearing. It armed them for the conflict of life, and sustained them when persecution came in like a flood. Every humble and teachable child of God to-day cries, Come, Lord Jesus. This is the cry of faith. We want to see Him of whom we have read so much in the history of his early life, and of whom so much is predicted on the page of prophecy. We want to see that same Jesus who went up from Olivet. We shall, if faithful, see Him who so loved us that he died for us. He loved us. We enjoy this love by faith; but we are anxious to feel, and experience, and come in contact with, the acts and things which constitute the fulfillment of the promises in him. When here, he sent, by word or touch, the life forces dancing through the veins of the dead. We want to taste this power of the world to come, as it thrills through our whole being, disrobing us of the mortal, with all the ills and defects which belong to it, and investing us with the immortal and its accompaniments, then beyond that, enjoy the presence of Jesus, and the company of angels and saints. The thought overpowers me, and language fails.—JOHN L. WINCE, in Restitution.