Is Christ Coming Again?
By E. Hilliard
He promised to. Have any of his promises ever failed? Is there one among earth's millions that can point us to a single broken promise? He told his disciples just before his departure from earth that he was going where they could not come. He told them that he was going to prepare a place for them, and then added, "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." The disciples had been with their Lord through his ministry; they had seen his miracles of love and mercy; they had witnessed his flowing tears as he wept over the wicked city of Jerusalem; they had seen his mangled, bleeding form suspended between the heavens and the earth, and heard from his lips, amid the agonies of death, his noble prayer, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." They had also been with him after his resurrection, and were witnesses that he had risen from the dead. When this meek and lowly Jesus was about to leave them, he assembled them together on the Mount of Olives. Here he told them to tarry at Jerusalem until they should receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost; and that, after they had received this power, they should be witnesses of him unto the uttermost parts of the earth. After finishing his words of instruction, a cloud received him up out of their sight. While in sadness this little group stood steadfastly gazing after their Lord as he disappeared upon the cloudy vehicle, behold two men appeared clothed in white. They interrogated the disciples with the question, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?" As much as to say, Do ye not yet understand, from the Master's teaching while he was yet with you, that he was to leave you? that he was to go to his Father? that he was to go and prepare a place for you?" It was very difficult for the disciples to rid themselves of the idea that Christ was to establish, at that time, a temporal kingdom; for upon this very occasion they had asked the question, "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" As they saw their Lord departing from them, their hope must have greatly weakened. To cheer their sad hearts two angels were sent to emphatically repeat to them the promise of his second advent. It was not proclaimed by mortal lips, but by messengers sent directly from heaven. Acts 1:11. Heaven has ever manifested the most intense interest in the salvation of men. Those doctrines, a belief of which is so essential to man's salvation, have ever been proclaimed by the highest authority in the most positive manner. Take, for instance, the moral law; God spake those ten moral precepts with his own voice, wrote them on tables of stone, in the most simple and comprehensive language. They embody man's whole duty. "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man." Eccl. 12:13. Christ's birth was also proclaimed by angels to the shepherds on the plains. We have not only the promise from the heavenly messengers to the disciples on the ascension mount, of our Lord's return, but we have also the manner in which he will come. The language is clear and positive: "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. As surely as he was taken up in a cloud in the sight of men, just so surely will he come again in the same way. While many believe and admit that Christ's coming is near, they do not acknowledge that his coming will be a literal appearance. Some say that it occurs at death; some, that it consists in the conversion of the world, or the temporal millennium; others, that it is manifested in modern Spiritualism. It cannot be at death, for we are told in the Revelation, "Behold he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him." Rev. 1:7. If his coming takes place at death, only the expiring one can see him. Neither does it consist in the conversion of the world, nor the spiritual reign of Christ for a thousand years. The Scriptures teach us that the wicked will be on the earth at that time, and that they will be destroyed. The existence of the wicked on the earth would preclude the idea of Christ's universal spiritual reign; nor could their destruction properly be called a conversion. "And to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." The gospel is that which will convert the world, if it is ever to be converted. The above scripture plainly teaches us that some will not obey it, and for this reason they will constitute that class upon whom the fiery vengeance of our Lord will fall. No; his coming will not be to a few Spiritualist mediums, assembled in some dark room to behold a ghostly figure that disappears upon mere approach, or that vanishes at the slightest touch. "For as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, so also shall the coming of the Son of man be." Matt. 24:27. Matthew exactly agrees with the Revelation. When the dark storm-clouds span the sky, and the vivid lightning flashes forth, it illuminates the whole heavens. Every eye beholds it. Just so will our coming Lord on his cloudy chariot light up the whole heavens from east to west. Every eye will behold him. Reader, do you long to see the King in his beauty? Is the language of your heart, "Thy kingdom come?" Those who truly love their blessed Lord will love to hear of his return, and will receive the testimony relative to his coming with all gladness. E. HILLIARD.
Medford, Minn.