The Coming King-No. 1

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 31, 1903

The Coming King—No. 1

“O WATCHMAN on the mountain height, Proclaim the coming day; Behold the spires of golden fires Point upward far away. “O watchman, bid a sleeping church Awake, arise, and pray; The heavenly Bridegroom soon will come, And now is on his way. “Coming, yes, he’s coming, The Dayspring from on high; Coming, yes, he’s coming, The hour is drawing nigh; “Coming, yes, he’s coming, Let all the ransomed sing; The hills are bright with holy light, All hail the coming King.”

The coming King has been the theme of all the prophets. “Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.” More than twenty centuries ago one of these prophets, these seers of God, saw down to the time when the King would be manifested, and he said, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh.” More than five centuries after this prediction was made, it was fulfilled when Jesus rode into Jerusalem that day in his triumphal entry. Then priests and Pharisees tried to hush the voices that were shouting in triumph; but the crowd took up those very words of the prophet, inspired by the moving of the Spirit that gave the prophecy, and hundreds of voices repeated, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee.” But before this triumph took place, a voice was raised in the wilderness, which said, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” And John the Baptist came forth with a message of the coming King. When he saw Jesus of Nazareth among the people, he pointed him out, and took up the words of the prophet Isaiah,—“Behold your God,”—but translating them into the circumstances and purposes of the coming King, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”

Before the shout of triumph could be raised in the cry, “Behold, thy King cometh,” it was necessary that a message

which should say, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”

The experience that day of triumphal entry was a typical experience, real in itself, and yet pointing forward to that day of greater glory when the cry should be raised, “Behold, he cometh with the clouds,” when they will see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with great glory, and when angels and redeemed saints will join in the rejoicing; but before that cry is raised, and as a preparation for it, the same message must again be given, “Behold your God,” “Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”

At the time when our Lord himself was upon the earth, his disciples made inquiry of him concerning the signs of his return, and he gave them that wonderful prophecy in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew. The first section of his prophecy closes with the fourteenth verse: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come.” The people of that generation had heard the message of John the Baptist; they had been greatly moved by it so that all classes came to him confessing their sins, and were baptized. Although his work was to prepare the way for the coming Messiah, although he sought to do a work in the hearts of the people that would prepare them to recognize the kingdom of God as distinguished from the kingdom of earth, yet when the Messiah himself came, he was neither recognized nor received.

The people of that time cried, “Crucify him, crucify him; . . . we have no king but Cæsar.” But it was in the order of God’s providence that that whole generation should have the privilege of hearing the gospel message before they should be called to suffer in consequence of their crucifixion of the Messiah. Those who had rejected the message of John the Baptist were poorly prepared for the appearance of the Messiah, and when he came, they did not recognize him as the Messiah, but put him to death; and in putting him to death they brought their own national existence to an end. In crucifying Christ they destroyed the temple. In taking that step they put themselves as a nation beyond the reach of the gospel of grace which he came to bring, and yet it was the purpose of God that after his resurrection and ascension, messengers from God should take up the work, and should carry to all the earth the gospel of this Messiah, the gospel of Christ crucified, raised from the dead, ascended into heaven, the high priest above.

That time of the end spoken of in Matt. 24:14, marked the end of Jerusalem, and its destruction; it marked also the end of the world, and its destruction. The same sign serves for both.

The children of that day whose fathers and mothers cried, “Crucify him, crucify him,” were yet to live to a responsible age, and themselves hear the gospel message concerning the Messiah whom their fathers had crucified. This same thing is being repeated in our day. More than half a century ago there began a movement with which in the providence of God we are connected to-day. That movement was to take up anew the work of John the Baptist, and prepare the way for the coming King, and from 1831-2-3 and so on down to 1843-4 this message of the coming King went forth in fulfillment of that prophecy, and under the leadership of that angel, when a great voice was to be raised, “Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” This message was largely refused; especially was this so after the passing of that first time when many Adventists looked for the second coming of our Lord. Then there was a very decided objection to hearing further concerning the coming King, and in that summer of 1844 there were thousands of advent believers who came out from the churches because their testimony would not be heard in the church itself. At that time the message that would prepare the way of the Lord was rejected; and in the rejection of this message there was revealed exactly the same spirit that was revealed by the professed people of God when they refused the message of John the Baptist, and followed it by the crucifixion of our Lord. In rejecting the announcement of the coming King, they crucified the message sent to them to prepare the way for his coming, but in God’s providence the children of that day whose fathers and mothers refused the message have lived until this day, that they themselves may intelligently decide whether they will follow in the steps of their fathers, or whether they will receive the message which God is sending to the world.

Now Jesus told them in that day, “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come.” That prophecy was fulfilled in that generation. And before that generation passed, the gospel of Christ crucified, the gospel of the Messiah, had been preached in all the world for a testimony, and then came the end,—the end of that people as a nation; and then was the prophecy fulfilled which is being fulfilled again to-day, and the same words are applicable at this time. And so in this generation we may again take up these words, and standing as we do in the time of the generation that has crucified these messages, we can say, This gospel of the kingdom, this gospel of the coming King, shall be preached in all the world, in this generation, and then the coming King will be revealed.