A LOUD CRY by Elder H. A. St. John

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 9, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 35.

A LOUD CRY.

By Elder H. A. St. John

BY ELDER H. A. ST. JOHN.

PART TWO.

"AND I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, . . . saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come. . . . And there followed another angel. . . . And the third angel followed them." "And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of Man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle." Rev. 14: 6-9, 14.

Ministering angels, as the invisible forerunners of the coming King, all enshrouded by the Spirit and power of God, inspire the hearts of the true disciples of Jesus with this loudest of all loud cries ever heard by sinful men. Believers will cry aloud and spare not; they will lift up their voices like a trumpet. The glorious coming King, and the necessary preparation to meet him, will be the burden of their joyful message.

Hosanna! This loud cry like the former will begin and end with hosanna. The humble believers, who have forsaken all for Jesus, filled and overflowing with faith and love, with praise and delight, with hope and joy, will ring out the glad tidings of the closing gospel message to the music of hosanna: Our King cometh, our everlasting deliverance from the bondage of corruption is at hand; our eternal blissful reign with the King of kings is about to begin; our days of exile are almost over; hosanna!

Never will the closing message lighten the earth with its power and glory until it gets the hosanna in it. Save now.

"Lift the voice in notes of gladness, Ring the shout along the sky; Cease your tears, ye sons of sadness; Sing! rejoice, your God is nigh."

"And the city was moved." Not one city alone this time, but every city—the whole world. To every nation, kindred, tongue, and people will the glad hosanna of the message resound. And to the question propounded everywhere, "Who is this that is coming?" the joyful disciples will answer in triumphant strains: Job will tell you, it is my Redeemer that shall stand in the latter day upon the earth. Ask David; he will tell you this is "our God [that] shall come, and shall not keep silence, [but] a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him." Ask Isaiah; he will tell you, It is he that shall sit upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. Jeremiah will tell you, It is the son of David, the Branch, the Lord, a King that shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. Hearken to Ezekiel and he will tell you, It is the Mighty One who shall open the graves of his people and bring them up out of their graves, and bring them into the land of Israel. Daniel will tell you, It is the standing up of Michael, that great prince which standeth for the children of the people. Ask Micah, he will tell you, It is the Tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, unto which shall return the first dominion. Ask Malachi, and he will tell you, It is the Lord of hosts, who cometh to make up his jewels.

In the New Testament, ask Matthew, and he will tell you, It is the Son of Man coming in the glory of his Father and seated upon the throne of his glory to reward every man according as his works shall be. Ask the other evangelists and they will tell you, It is the glorified Redeemer, coming in the clouds of heaven, in power and great glory, and with all the holy angels, to change our vile bodies, and fashion them like unto his own glorious body, to send his angels to gather us together unto him in the air, and then to take us to the place he has prepared for us in his Father's house of many mansions, that house that is incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us, where tears, pains, nor suffering shall never come, and where we shall ever be with the Lord. Hosanna.

"They spread their garments in the way." In like manner in this loud cry, true believers will make a covenant with Jesus by sacrifice. Nothing will be too good or too precious to give up to send the glad tidings of the everlasting gospel ringing with a loud cry to earth's remotest bounds.

"Rebuke thy disciples." Again scoffers will scoff, and dignitaries in modern Israel—evil servants who say in their hearts, "My Lord delayeth his coming"—will smite the good and faithful servants, calling them alarmists, world upsetters, disturbers of the peace, fermenters of disloyalty and revolution, and by civil laws will try to stop the message. But the more and harder they smite, the louder will be the cry. If they did not cry aloud, and spare not, and lift up their voices like a trumpet, then the very stones would cry out. It is God's message, and it must and will go, and that too with a loud cry, and no opposition can stop it.

The coming King is at the door. For years the signs of his coming have been hung out before the world, one after another, until now the very last ones appear. As the true disciples of this generation have seen these omens of the approach of their King in his beauty, as they have beheld the gleams of the golden morning brightening continually, more and more have they felt like shouting hosanna. But hitherto they have been partially restrained. But the bands are being broken. Soon the whole earth will resound with the glad refrain: "Our King cometh, riding not upon the lowly colt, but upon the clouds of heaven, seated upon the right hand of power. Lo, this is our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us! Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation." Then the saints, singing glory in a chariot of glory, will go home to glory, to behold Jesus' glory, and dwell in glory evermore. Hosanna!