WILL CHRIST'S WORDS STAND?
By Selected
PETER represents the scoffers of the last days as saying, "Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." The stability of nature through so many ages is made, in the taunting challenge of the scoffers, the ground for concluding that the present order of the physical universe is to last forever. But Jesus, recognizing the heavens and earth as the most enduring things within the scope of natural law and the comprehension of human reason, puts the certainty of the fulfillment of his words in contrast with the durability of the visible creation. In effect he said, These heavens, which have stood unmoved through the atmospheric convulsions of thrice two thousand years; whose stability has become the synonym for eternity, by whom men make oath of things unchangeable; whose blue drapery, unfaded by the lapse of rolling years, enrobes us still, —even these heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll, and, igniting, pass away; but my words, more enduring than the sun, moon, and stars, shall not pass away. And this solid earth, which has outlived the ever-increasing earthquake shocks of all the centuries, and resisted the threatening power of its own internal fires unto this day, and which scoffers boldly declare to be a fabric indestructible, whose long survival is proof of its immutability—yea, this earth, with its constitution of iron and its surface of granite, with its ancient shores and everlasting hills, shall some day melt like wax, and be dissolved in liquid flame; but above its molten mass my words shall stand as diamonds set in the eternity of truth. "My words shall not pass away." And this he said of his declaration that when the "great tribulation" should be past, and the "signs" all appear, he would come again in clouds, with power and glory, and reign where then he suffered. Our hope of seeing our Christ and King is more certain than the stars, surer than the heavens, more enduring than the earth. What seems most lasting, most unchanging, most secure, may fail and cease to be; but certain as God and truth, our hope built on our Master's words will evermore abide. "Let not my eyes with tears be dim, Let joy their upward glance illum; Look up, and watch, and wait for him— Soon, soon the Lord will come."
—Selected.