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THE PROSPECT

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 27, 1876

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 47, No. 17.

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THE PROSPECT.

By M. Wood

“LET not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. 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 14:1-3. Blessed promise! Cheering thought to the weary, toiling pilgrim! His long-cherished hopes are soon to be fully realized. “This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” Acts 1:11.
From the present we are to look forward to the future, and contemplate the grand yet solemn event of Christ’s second advent to this earth. Our Lord has gone to receive the kingdom. He will come in his glory, and in the glory of his Father, with all the holy angels. Then, and not till then, shall Dan. 7:18, have its literal fulfillment. But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and shall possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever. The signs of the times indicate that the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. And when he comes, he will come to our complete salvation. He will confer upon us the inheritance which is incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. He will come, and then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of the Father.
Most glorious prospect for the saints of God! They shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, and shall be admitted into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Rom. 8:21. Let us look forward to the time of our redemption with joyful anticipation, taking the word of God as the man of our counsel and the guide of our lives. Let us bring ourselves into strict conformity to the law of God. And while we meditate upon the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, let us, dear reader, associate Gethsemane and Calvary with our Lord’s descent in the clouds and his glorious reign with his saints. He suffered on earth. He now pleads in Heaven. The work of atonement will soon be completed. The decree will go forth, “He that is filthy, let him be filthy still.” The door of mercy will be forever closed! The servants of God will have been sealed with the seal of the living God. Rev. 7:3. And Jesus will come forth to snap the bands of death, to raise the sleeping saints, and translate the living righteous. 1 Thess. 4:15-17. Well may we call upon our absent Lord as did one of old, “Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.” M. WOOD.
Boston, April, 1876.