WHEN any great calamity, such as an earthquake, tidal wave, or a fire, befalls a locality, a country town, or city, some, and oftentimes many, lose not only their earthly all, but also their lives. But there is another class, often very numerous, who escape with their lives, and these are called refugees. They are homeless, and destitute, and wholly dependent upon those not involved in the same catastrophe, for food and shelter.
Would it not be fearful to contemplate an earthquake and a fire that should envelop the whole world. All cities, towns, and villages broken down, all farms, all homes, great or small, magnificent or humble, shaken to pieces, all mountains moved out of their places, all islands disappearing, indeed, the whole world involved in one and the same awful holocaust. As destruction and ruin would be everywhere, there would be no place of safety on earth for refugees to flee.
Well, we can inform the reader on the authority of Him who said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away” (Matt. 24:35), that just such a desolation is coming, and according to all the signs, is coming fast. These local disasters in different parts of the world are only precursors of the great earthquake, so mighty and so great that none like it was ever known since man was upon the earth. It is predicted, and quite fully described, in the Word of God. Some of the statements of that Word relating to that day are as follows:
“Behold the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and perverteth the face thereof. . . . The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled. . . . The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard.” “The earth is moved exceedingly,” “when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth.” “I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by His fierce anger. For thus hath the Lord said, The whole land shall be desolate; the cities of the nations fell.” “And every mountain and island were moved out of their places.”
It will be the beginning of the day of the Lord. Man’s day of probation and grace is forever ended. It will be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation on the earth. Riches, rich men, mighty men, learned men, men of all classes, will cry then bitterly. They will weep and howl for the miseries that shall come upon them. Refugees by the million, with no place of refuge on earth to which they may flee! They might have prepared for that day, and were exhorted to do so, but they would not, and did not, hence it comes upon the great majority unexpectedly, and they are utterly unprepared.
When that great day comes, Jesus comes to reap the harvest of the earth. His own will be gathered into the heavenly garner. That will be their secure and eternal refuge. They have fought the good fight of faith by so doing, and laid up for themselves a good foundation against that time to come. Then they will lay hold of eternal life, on a foundation that will never be moved. They will lose all things earthly in that day, but what care they, for they have laid up their treasure above, and will then find refuge in their own eternal home. All the sleeping saints will be raised to life, and then, together with the living saints, will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, from mortals to immortals, their vile bodies changed and fashioned like unto Christ’s glorious body—all caught up in the air to meet Christ, a mighty host of glorified refugees from an utterly desolate earth. Jesus will then lead them, not to some spot on earth, but to His Father’s house of many mansions, where He now is preparing a place for them.
They had repented and obeyed the Gospel; they had kept the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus; their names were in the Lamb’s book of life; and, therefore, they were delivered from a sinking, perishing world, and given an abundant entrance through the gates into the holy and heavenly city. And never again will they come in contact with sin or any of its consequences.
Reader, is your name written there, in the book of His kingdom? If not, make no delay to enroll your name with the rapidly gathering host of refugees, to be glorified by the Rock of Ages. H. A. ST. JOHN.