Are You Ready?

 •  3 min. read  •  grade level: 3
 
A lesson from the Roman Army.
The morning appears on the distant hills,
A white fog curls up from the little rills,
And nothing is heard in the Roman camp,
Save the sleepers’ snore, and the sentries’ tramp.
But hark! that sound, shrill, loud, and clear,
As the trumpet’s notes fall on each sleeper’s ear,
From end to end of the camp resounds,
And away to the echoing hills rebounds.
A change now breaks on that quiet scene,
Bustle and life where rest had been,
As warriors step forth in their armor bright,
And greet the first rays of the dawning light.
The horses are saddled, the baggage is pack’d,
The tents are struck, and the tent poles stack’d,
And cavalry, infantry, horses and men,
Are ready, and waiting the march to begin.
But hark! again the trumpet’s din,
The camp is fired, and the ranks fall in.
And now they await, in unbroken array,
The trumpet’s loud peal, the third time that clay,
‘Tis heard; the third, the LAST great trump.
Ere its notes die away or its echoes die out,
A voice is heard; it demands, Are YOU ready?
In loud cheerful tones they reply, We ARE ready,
Again, yet again the question is ask’d,
The answers ring out as clear as at first,
The word is then given: the ranks move away,
To conquer or perish, be slain or to slay.
But the time is coming, it hastens along,
It might be here ere to-morrow’s sun,
When the Lord Himself, with His heavenly shout
With archangel’s voice and the trumpet’s note,
Shall summon His saints to Himself in the airy
My reader or hearer, will you be there?
Oh, bear with me patiently a moment or two,
The scripture has said it: it must be true,
That “All have sinn’d, of the glory come short.”
Of sin death’s the wages; life cannot be bought.
No! Life is a gift as the flowing stream free,
And the Savior Himself says, Come unto Me.
For that trumpet call can only be heard
By those who have known and received Him as Lord,
By those who have found that by simple faith,
In His precious blood pour’d out at His death,
That their SINS ARE FORGIVEN, their guilt put away,
Turn’d from darkness to light, made children of day.
I know some would tell you, with confidence too,
That naught of all this can be known by you,
Till before the white throne for judgment you stand,
With sheep or with goats on the right or left hand,
But what saith the scripture?
“There’s NO condemnation,”
Oh, stop! and consider it,
“There’s NO condemnation, “
To those who are in Christ Jesus “ the Lord,
Our Savior, Redeemer, Jehovah, the Word.
“At the last trump” (for the trumpet shall sound,
And from end to end of the world rebound),
And the dead in Christ shall first rise, and we
Who are alive and remain on the earth shall be
Caught up together with them in the air.
My reader or hearer, will YOU be there?
C. Ε. T