TIME grows old! The Dread Majesty of the heavens arises to shake terribly the earth! The day is near that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud and them that do wickedly shall be stubble!
The prophet Daniel, speaking of this very period of time, says, that many shall be purified and made white, and tried—probably in time of great persecution; but the wicked shall do wickedly—go from bad to worse with long and rapid strides—yea, glory in their shame and proud ignorance, and, therefore, none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.
Before the evening of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, there shall be, according to St. Paul, a departure from the faith. Those also that retain the form, but deny the power of godliness that they may gratify their lusts and cloak their carnality, will heap to themselves teachers, complimentary and waxen images of men having itching ears that cannot bear the truth. In these perilous times, men shall be lovers of their own selves: covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.
And St. Peter says, that in the last days shall come scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they are willingly ignorant of, the destruction of the antediluvian world, and deny and despise the future certainty of the conflagration of the present heavens and earth, which we know by the word of God, continues to be left in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
As infidelity increases, the times will be more strongly marked, and voluptuousness and security among the wicked, make an additional sign of the coming of the Son of man: For as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came and took them all away. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot. They did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded, but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. And a cautionary direction is given to the believers that in this general security they should watch, lest at any time their hearts should be overcharged with intemperance and worldly cares, and so that day which shall come as a snare on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth, should overtake them also by surprise.
At some period not long before the great day, there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars—and upon the earth distress [revolutions] of nations with perplexity, the sea and waves roaring—either literally or symbolically, to express tumultuous combinations of people mad to throw off every restraint, civil or religious—men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth—for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man—some portentous display understood as we said before by faithful believers. And when these things begin to come to pass, says the evangelist, then look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh.
Lo! the hour is come! the mystery of God is finished! It is the determined counsel of the Eternal. What voice is that I hear from the dread throne, as the sound of many waters? "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last, saith the Lord. Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be!" I see the Son approaching to the throne of majesty in the heavens. I saw, says the prophet Daniel, in the night visions, and behold one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And thus he moves his Father: O Father! the year of my redeemed is come—the day of vengeance is in mine heart. Long has my Spirit strove with men. All that love and wisdom infinite can give, has been bestowed to effect their salvation. And now the ingrates vainly imagine that they shall efface thy remembrance, a sense of thine existence, and their obligations to love and worship, and obey thee, from the face of the whole earth. Come, therefore, let me get down, for the harvest is ripe, the press is full, the fats overflow! For their wickedness is great—that I may wipe away the reproach of my people, and perform my faithful promise, which their steadfast faith has long expected, in bringing them home to these fair realms, to behold the glory which I had with thee before all worlds, and with me to enjoy thy smiles and love eternal—and that I may condemn and banish the impenitent rebels of mankind and the disobedient angels to their own place, as vessels of wrath fitted for destruction. And there was given him, continues the prophet, dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all nations and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
And now he ascends the great white throne, raised on "the chariot of paternal deity." Above, beneath and round about him pour the marshaled hierarchies of angels and the innumerable company of the souls of just men made perfect: for them also who sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him. The brightest military spirit of heaven leads on the angelic hosts: down through the regions of space, by unnumbered worlds they mark their rapid way, till they descry far off this poor terrestrial, sin-polluted orb, at once for their impenitence and rejection of the Saviour, the disgrace and scorn of all created worlds. The mighty angel whom St. John saw standing upon the sea and upon the earth, at the signal given, lifts up his hand to heaven and swears by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that time should be no longer.
What shout is that I hear? It is no other than the bursting joy of angels attendant on the Lord from heaven—from ten thousand thousand strong lunged cherubs breaks the glad peal:
"The joy, the shout, the harmony,
'Flies o'er the everlasting hills.
'Loud as from thunders without number,
'Sweet as from blest voices uttering praise."
The jubilee begins! Hark! hark! do you hear that awful sound? It is the trump of God. Louder and louder the great archangel swells the tremendous roar! The awful peal reverberates through continents, thro' seas and islands! The steadfast earth reels to and fro like a tempest-beaten cottage! See, the opening grave! the earth teems with resurrection! Behold these glorious forms! how sweetly they ascend!—What love and joy in their resplendent countenances! These are the saints of God—these are they that slept in Jesus! For the dead in Christ shall rise first—Then we which are alive and remain, shall drop our dull mortality. For we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump, says the Apostle.—This corruption shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality. By the ministry of glorious angels, both the living and resuscitated saints ascend to meet the Lord in the air: for, Behold he cometh! "Far off his coming shines!" Nearer and nearer the bright pomp approaches!
Behold, he cometh! and every eye shall see him, and they also that pierced him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. The angelic hosts dispart on either hand, and the King immortal appears in all the glory of his Father, with the holy angels. The judgment is set, and the books are opened. Lift up your eyes, ye saints of the living God, and behold on the seat of judgment enthroned your Judge and Saviour! Around him through the vast concourse are spread innumerable animated forms, beaming angelically bright. Is this the babe of Bethlehem? Is this the manger's weeping care? Is this the man arraigned at Pilate's bar? Is this the bleeding astonishment of Calvary, whose death the blushing heavens refused to behold? Yes, this is he—that man of grief. But O, how changed! And I saw a great white throne, says St. John, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heavens fled away and there was found no place for them.