The Coming One by Mrs. Palmer

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 22, 1873

The Coming One.

By Mrs. Palmer

We are not now, neither were we ever, in sympathy with those who would set the day and hour of our Lord’s appearing. But for about thirty years we have unwaveringly believed that, in the most emphatic sense, “the end of all things is at hand.”

This belief has not been founded on the opinions of men, but by much prayerful searching of the Scriptures, comparing scripture with scripture. Believing that all Scripture is given by inspiration, and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness, and that the same Spirit that indited the Holy Scripture is given to open its sacred meaning to the humble believer.

To expect to know the day and hour, or even the year, of the coming of Jesus in the clouds of heaven, we have never thought to be within the province of other than the great Eternal. But that the humble Bible student may, by a careful reliance on the teachings of the word, and observance of the signs of the times, know when the coming of the Lord draweth nigh, and is even at the very doors, is a truth too palpable to require comment. (See Matt. 24: 29-33.)

Dear reader, are you in search after truth in regard to the second advent of our Lord? That He will come again you know, because there is not a more explicit, incontrovertible declaration within the lids of the Bible than this.

Why should not Christians of the present day be like the Christians of nearly two thousand years since? So greatly did the Christians of Thessalonica long for the speedy coming of their Lord that, instead of putting it off “thousands on thousands of ages hence” (as did a teacher in Israel with whom we were conversing), their almost impatient desires inclined them to think that it must be immediate. Paul corrects their mistake, telling them that day shall not come until certain things (of which we shall hereafter speak) occur. James also exhorts his suffering brethren to patience, not by telling them that the coming of their Lord was to be protracted “thousands on thousands of ages,” but by the most welcome truth—“for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.”

If the joyous anticipations of the return of the Son of man should so fill the minds’ vision of the early church about two thousand years ago, how should the vision of believers of the present day be occupied with the subject. Christians of the present day have the Old and New Testament Scriptures. The volume of Revelation is closed. The Book of books is in the hand of every believer. Not only does it testify of Christ as a redeemer from sin, but of Christ as a coming one. Oh! yes; with what certainty do the Scriptures tell us of Jesus’ coming again, not as an offering for sin!

That has been done. How emphatically does Paul speak of Him who was “once offered to bear the sins of many;” and then adds, “Unto them that look for Him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.”

And Titus, also, pointing the eye of his brethren upward, says, “Looking for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”—MRS. PALMER, in Guide to Holiness.