The Great Day | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 17, 1872

The Great Day.

The National Baptist publishes the following stirring words on this subject. Preparation for that day, which is made so prominent in the Scriptures as that which is to end all probationary scenes, is the true business of this hour. We do well to think upon that day, to consider its characteristics, to ponder its issues, and to mark the nearness of its approach. No greater incentive to preparation can be found, than is involved in such a study as this.

One word which the writer uses seems ill chosen for this time: Slowly, he says, the day comes on. Swiftly, rather, should be the word employed. The prophet tells us how it should be regarded near the end, when he says, The great day of the Lord is near “and hasteth greatly.”

Absolutely the day is coming no faster now than in the days of the patriarchs or the apostles; but the words of the prophet just quoted plainly imply that when it should be near, the rapidity of its approach would seem to be greatly accelerated.

Any person may easily illustrate this point for himself. Take your stand upon a railroad track and watch the train approaching in the distance. At first it seems almost stationary. A faint and indistinct roar, and an apparently small volume of smoke, are the only evidences you have that it is in motion. Steadily but slowly these tokens of its approach increase. At length it reaches a point where it begins to expand rapidly the angle of vision. The engine seems fast swelling out into huge proportions. You begin to see and appreciate its motion. You begin to realize that it is under the impulse of some mighty motor. The ground begins to tremble beneath your feet. And finally with every steel-bound sinew quivering under the terrible speed of its course, it dashes past, with a roar which well nigh stuns you.

As the train draws nigh and flies past as on the wings of the wind, it moves with no more rapidity than when first seen in the distance; but its speed seems to increase in geometrical progression. Then it seemed to be almost at rest; now, racing with the lightning.

So with the day of God. As it draws near, it seems, as the prophet declares, to be hastening greatly. Its tokens are abroad. Its avant-couriers have appeared in the heavens above, and in the earth beneath. More distinctly visible become each year its flaming heralds, and more audible the rumbling of its chariot wheels. They upon whom this day, with all its forewarnings, shall come as a thief, will be without excuse.

The Baptist says:—

“Jesus, in his teachings, often speaks of that day. We instinctively ask, What day is thus set apart from the rest? It is a significant word. We stand in awe of it,—a day somewhere on, standing out like a mountain. It is not a day, but that day. The Saviour thus designates the day of Judgment—a king among all the days.

“Of that day and hour knoweth no man.” Matt. 24: 26.

When it comes we know not. We know simply this—it is a fact in God’s government. Slowly and steadily it is approaching. It encamps every night nearer to the race—to us—to me. We have no human almanacs that can foretell its coming. That it will come seems to be one of the fundamental thoughts of our mind, admitted everywhere and always. The Egyptians bore decided witness, in their books of the dead, to the coming of that day. Let not that day come upon you sleeping, said Jesus. Duty is ours; that day is God’s.

“Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord.” Matt. 9: 22. It will manifest the life. The husk of life, the covering, will be stripped off, and the man, what he is, will appear. It will not create anything, it will simply unfold and reveal. Without it the world and God’s dealings would be an unsolvable riddle. We sometimes say, “Murder will out,” but it is not true. The court records show that it is but a fragment of the truth. All life, all history, all that we see of God, cry out for such a day.

“It shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom,” etc. Luke 10: 12. It will be a day of judging and condemning. Men will sink downward not only by moral gravitation, but also by judicial sentence. It is the doomsday of the soul out of Christ. Then God, who seems sleeping when his laws are broken, will rise up. God is not dead but longsuffering. It seems no wonder that the Latin hymn, “Dies Iræ,”—day of wrath,—got such a hold on the middle ages. It is an overwhelming thought—the day of condemnation.

“There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me at that day.” 2 Tim. 4: 8. It is a day of Christian crowning. Midnight darkness comes upon the lost soul, but glorious daylight upon the saved soul. The uncrowned Paul in the Roman dungeon will be crowned Paul at God’s right hand. That day comes, uplifting the oppressed soul, bidding wronged ones to stand by the right. It comes like music amid the disordered notes of this world, saying, “All will be made right there.”

Is not the thought of that day sufficient to crush our hearts? It would affright us were we forced to meet it alone. Standing before that day, the redeemed soul can say, “Jesus died for me.” The cross, the blood, make the only hiding place. We are accepted in the Beloved One.