p. 67 | The Great Coming

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 27, 1863

The Great Coming.

"Behold, he cometh!" Yes, he has received his commission from the Father for the glorifying of his people and the judgment of the world. He is, by his Spirit, his angels, and his ministers on earth, preparing the world for the reception of his presence. He hath mounted the the chariot of final redemption. Its wheels are moving round. The faint and feeble sound of them may be heard afar. Enlarge your vision, and gaze with the intensity of heavenly wisdom into the mysteries of futurity—"Behold he cometh!"

It is added, "with clouds." Clouds, in the Bible, are often employed as an appropriate symbol of glorious majesty. And in glorious majesty the Lord Jesus will appear when he comes. Probably the symbol alludes to the manner in which the Lord descended on mount Sinai at the giving of the law. There "clouds and darkness were round about him," and he appeared in terrible majesty, so that even Moses, his chosen one, trembled at the sight. . . . .

And even now, and ever since his apostle wrote, the clouds of his majesty, the indications of his vengeance and displeasure with those who scorn his gospel, have been advancing and accumulating over the world; and in due time the muttering storm will burst forth in awful splendor, and the immediate presence of our exalted Redeemer will be fully realized. "Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were!" is the cry of a Christless or Christ-hating world. The cry is false, but let us take it as it is. Ah! who knows not, that often, when the might of heaven is about to be revealed in the sky, for a time before the bursting of the thunder every element is still? The wind is a breath. The rustling of the leaves is heard no more, and the rippling of the waves is changed into a calm. But is this stillness a pledge of continued repose? Nay, rather, while it lasts, do we not feel as if the attention of Him by whom all things are upheld were absorbed in the muttering of the gathering storm?

In like manner, O ye scorners of the coming Redeemer, the present quiescence of the highest heaven is no indication of abiding repose. An era is drawing nigh when the divine stillness which prevails will give place to wrath, proportioned to the greatness and length of the deepening gloom. O, already the Christian sees the clouds of the advent covering the sky, and anon the world shall be lighted up with the glory of the Lord. Say not, "Where is the promise of his coming?" "Behold, he cometh with clouds."

"Every eye shall see him." The nature of the advent here referred to necessarily determines the character of this vision. Hence the plain import of this announcement is, that men shall recognize the footsteps of the Saviour's mediatory providence in the leading events of the world's history; and ever as these events roll onward, more evident to all will be the doing of the Redeemer, till at last, when the consummation comes, and that Redeemer is openly seen interposing his omnipotent arm in the climax of the world's career, the conviction will force itself upon every mind, that all along the omnipotent arm has been swaying the destinies of mankind.

Meanwhile, the providence of the world is rolling rapidly on. The men of the world recognize no mediator's sway, and the smile of an impious infidelity sits upon their countenance, as they hear us declare, on the authority of God, that our Redeemer is at the right hand of the power, and that all the astonishing vicissitudes of the earth are only indications that he is more speedily than heretofore converging the interests of the world to its predicted crisis. "Be not ye like unto them." They cannot look beyond material things. They cannot see with the eye of faith, as we do, the divine Redeemer making bare his holy arm in the sight of all nations. Pity they cannot! But there is a time coming when they will find it impossible to resist the overwhelming evidence of the Redeemer's providential sway, a time coming when not merely his omnipotent arm, but his whole mediatory glory, shall stand disclosed before a trembling world. And then literally "every eye shall see him."

Dreadful will be the "wrath of the Lamb" when he ariseth to judge. Then he will be seen beyond the possibility of a doubt, coming in his terrible array, "coming in the clouds of heaven," to smite every foe, and emphatically to inflict the predicted doom upon "the mystery of iniquity," the man of sin, "whom (we are told) he shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming." Ah, then, if not before, "all kindreds shall wail because of him."