Is not He whose right it is to reign, preparing his people for some great crisis which is to precede his coming to claim the kingdoms of this world? So we are disposed to think. The signs of the times are portentous. Let us, beloved, keep our lamps trimmed and brightly burning—looking for, and hastening unto, the coming of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Jesus, our absent Lord, has told us that he would come again. He has been away nearly two thousand years. Nearly six thousand years has he stood forth before a fallen, redeemed race, as the Lamb newly slain. The jubilee of Heaven and earth—the grand Sabbatic year—is about to break upon us. By the foreshadowings of Scripture, we seem to see that there will be a short, sharp conflict with the man of sin. But though we may be called to pass through seas of blood, it will but quicken our heart-longing cry, "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly!"—Guide to Holiness.