Never shall that night be forgotten, when these solemn words took firm hold of my soul. That Sunday night preaching was not the first occasion on which I had heard of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, but that night the Spirit of God applied the truth in soul-awakening power. Who the preacher was I know not; whether he be still alive, I cannot say. My thoughts were engaged, not with the preacher, but with the solemn truths he announced. Often since then have I desired to grasp his hand, and thank him for having been the means, in God’s mercy, of disturbing the slumber of indifference in which I lay. But we shall stand by-and-by on the plains of glory, and sing together the redemption song, “Worthy is the Lamb.”
Long since have the circumstances of that service passed out of my mind, if indeed they were ever remembered beyond the night itself. One great truth took possession of my soul, namely, The Lord Jesus Christ is coming back, and He will come in the twinkling of an eye.
Reader, these words are true! I felt them to be so. The Holy Spirit had applied the Word of God in power to my soul, and I began to feel the awfulness of my unconverted, and therefore unprepared, condition.
As I left that room my alarm was intensified. A strange and startling sight met my gaze as I looked up into the heavens. Never before had I seen such a display of the “Northern Lights.” Streaks of light were flashing across the sky, and the awful feeling pervaded my whole being that the Lord was just about to descend into the air. I clung closely to a Christian, by whose side I was walking, as though for greater safety, and said, tremblingly, “I don’t want to go to hell.”
“No,” was the reply, “it would be terrible to go there.”
By all this the Lord was opening my eyes to see my lost and needy condition, and before long I was able to rejoice in Christ as my Saviour and Deliverer from “the wrath to come.”
And now, dear reader, How is it with you? Are you ready for His coming? Perhaps you have Christian parents and friends as I had. What a terrible thing if the Lord were to come this day and translate them to glory, but leave you behind! Remember, it will be “in the twinkling of an eye.” I, in my ignorance, thought that those flashes of light in the sky were premonitory signs that the Lord was coming, but no such signs will take place before He comes into the air for His people, it will be “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.” No time to prepare. If you are not ready, you will be left behind to undergo the awful judgments that shall fall upon the earth, and to “be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power,” when He shall return with His saints to execute those judgments (2 Thess. 1, 2).
O, friend, turn not a deaf ear! Treat not this appeal with careless indifference! Laugh not to scorn this warning voice! It may be the last that shall ever be addressed to you. The Lord is at hand! He will come “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Cor. 15:5252In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:52)).
Once more He invites you. “Come unto Me... and I will give you rest.” O, come to the Lord Jesus! “Believe on His name” (John 1: 12). Receive Him as your Saviour! Own Him as your Master! Confess Him as your Lord, and follow Him as your Guide “until He come.”