The Coming of the Lord—Why We Write About It.
By Ellet Joseph Waggoner
THE following is from the Christian Herald (Disciple), of Monmouth, Oregon:— "The SIGNS OF THE TIMES spends a good deal of its time in writing about the second advent of Christ, and talks as though nobody except the Seventh-day Adventists believes that Christ is ever coming again to this earth. The SIGNS ought to know that when it is trying to prove the second advent of our Saviour it is wasting its paper and ink. The truth is we are caring but little about the matter, for we simply accept the fact of his coming, and as to the time, we are not in the least concerned." What has the Herald been doing, that it does not want to hear about the coming of the Lord? When a child manifests indifference in regard to the return of his father, who has been absent, it is generally attributable to one of two causes: Either the child has no love for his father, and does not desire to see him; or else he has been doing that which he knows to be wrong, and fears that he will receive the punishment which he richly deserves. Which one of these reasons applies in the present instance?56 "The truth is we are caring but little about the matter," says the Herald. Well, that is just why we spend so much of our time writing and talking about it; and inasmuch as there are thousands of persons who are in the same condition that the Herald is, we think we cannot justly be accused of wasting our time. At any rate, we do not propose to stop. In fact, we dare not stop, for we have the following urgent command laid upon us: "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain; let all the inhabitants of the land tremble." Joel 2:1. Why all this alarm? What need is there of any unusual demonstration? Answer: "For the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand; a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness." Surely there is reason enough to talk about it. But, says the Herald, "we simply accept the fact of his coming, and as to the time, we are not in the least concerned." Therefore it thinks that nothing more need be said. Now we are very well aware that almost all bodies of professed Christians accept the fact that Christ is coming; but that is not enough. The trouble is that they are content with the mere expression of their belief that he will come sometime, but are not particular as to when he comes, or, seemingly, as to whether he comes at all. Now the command is, "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain." It is among God's professed followers that the alarm is to be made; those who nominally believe in the coming of the day of the Lord, but don't care anything about it. Is there not need enough for an alarm to be sounded, when even the "watchman on the walls of Zion," hold their peace, and publicly profess that they care nothing about what is coming? The command is given to these watchman, "Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones, lift up a standard for the people. Behold the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold his reward is with him, and his work before him." But the watchmen refuse to lift up the standard, or to clear the way so that the people may walk in the law of the Lord, and thus be prepared for his coming. And this explains why they are not caring for his coming. To the command to "ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls" (Jer. 6:16), they have replied, "We will not walk therein." No wonder they do not want to hear of his coming. Perhaps some one will say that we are straining a point, and that these "old paths," this "good way," in which they have said they would not walk, is not the Law of the Lord. Then read what follows: "Hear, O earth; behold I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it." Verse 19. But we will speak further on this point at another time. The Herald says it is not caring about the coming of the Lord. Well, we do care about it, and for these very good reasons:— 1. We shall then be with Christ. He himself says, "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." John 14:2, 3. Paul also says, "For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 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; and so shall we ever be with the Lord." Thess. 4:15-17. There is no other way than this that we can ever go to dwell with the Lord; therefore the coming of the Lord is to us a matter of considerable importance. 2. We shall then be made like him. "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us that we should be called the sons of God; therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." 1 Jno. 3:1, 2. "For our conversation [commonwealth] is in Heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour; the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body." Phil. 3:20, 21. Many persons pay a great deal of attention to the adorning of their bodies; but no amount of earthly adorning can make them compare with Christ's glorious body. With the hope that this promise will soon be fulfilled, we can be content even if we are ill-favored now. 3. We shall then receive a crown. Peter exhorts those who are placed over the flock, to feed them, and says, "And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away." 1 Pet. 5:4. And Paul also defines still more closely those who will receive this crown. "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." 2 Tim. 4:7, 8. Then it appears that we must do something more than merely to admit that Christ is coming, if we obtain the crown; we must love his appearing. But what we love we think about; and "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." Paul intimates that he loved the appearing of Christ; and that fact is evident from his writings, because he speaks of that more than of any other thing. Every letter that he wrote, contains more or less reference to Christ's coming. Will the Herald say that he wasted his paper and ink? We have not said so much about it as Paul did, but we mean to do better in the future, and thus obey the command to "exhort one another, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching." If we loved his appearing more we should talk about it, and try to induce others to love it also; and if everybody loved it, then surely we would talk about it more than ever; it would be an ever joyous topic of conversation. 4. At Christ's coming we shall be made immortal. Paul says in 1 Cor. 15:51-54, that at the sound of the last trump the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and the living shall be changed; that it is then that this corruptible will put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality. We long for that time to come. Have we not good reason to care for our Lord's coming? Here we suffer pain; we are often obliged to confess that we are sick; on account of the weakness and feebleness of our mortal bodies, we are unable to do much that we would like to do. We lose our friends, and are often obliged to mourn. But when Jesus comes all this will cease. "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away." "He that testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus."
E. J. W.