Our Lord Is Coming Again
By Joseph A. Seiss
T is no mere fancy,—no poet's dream, no mere fabulous device,—but immutable reality, as sure as the desolations which have been upon Mount Zion for these eighteen hundred years. Tho men may think but little of it, and put it far away from them, it is one of the infallible verities of almighty God. As the angels at His ascension said, so we may be satisfied, that "THIS SAME JESUS, WHICH IS TAKEN UP INTO HEAVEN, SHALL SO COME IN LIKE MANNER AS YE HAVE SEEN HIM GO INTO HEAVEN." Henceforward, therefore, could His followers say: "THE LORD HIMSELF SHALL DESCEND FROM HEAVEN." "Our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ." "Behold, HE COMETH WITH CLOUDS; and every eye shall SEE Him, and they also which pierced Him." Henceforward could the disciples go forth, "looking for that blessed hope, even the glorious appearing of the great God our Saviour Jesus Christ," and beseech men "by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto Him," and exhort their fellow believers "to wait for His Son from heaven," and proclaim the glad "rest, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels," and encourage the fond hopes of the persecuted and desponding with the assurance that "when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall SEE HIM AS HE IS." No, no; "we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." As certainly as the words of Jesus are true, as surely as the pillars of the eternal throne are steadfast, Jesus Himself, in glorified humanity, shall return again to this very world of ours. All the prophets have predicted it. All the pious, from the foundation of the world, have in some shape expected it. Jesus declared it, both before His death and after His resurrection. And the very last words in the holy Testament which He left us are, "He that testifieth these things saith, SURELY I COME QUICKLY. AMEN." Even apart from what the Scriptures contain upon the subject, with the account of His humiliation before us, reason itself might almost anticipate His return. We can not suppose that such a glorious Personage will always remain under the reproach and stigma of the cross. Natural justice seems to demand that He should come again, in the majesty that appertains to Him, in order to sweep away the infamy which wicked men in every age have sought to heap upon Him. As He whose right it is to reign, will reign; and as He whose "is the kingdom, the power, and the glory," will not forever leave His enemies to usurp His place; so we are driven to expect Him yet to come, "glorious in His apparel, and triumphing in the greatness of His strength." —From "The Last Times," by Joseph A. Seiss, D.D.