"He hasn't tum yet.”
The words came from a little fair haired girl. It was an eager little face, with the blue eyes surrounded by golden curls—and the eyes looked very bright just then, for the voice had something of doubt in it, as the words were uttered. Bright little soul! always singing, although the tiny limbs were paralyzed for life, and she could only walk a few steps and those with difficulty holding on to some strong hand. About a week before, she had heard for the first time of the Lord's coming.
So new, so beautiful, so strange, it seemed to her, that often during the day she would stop in some play, or meal, to ask,
"Tould He tum now?”
But this evening, evidently, doubts had entered in to the ardent little spirit.
"No, He has not come yet," was the answer, "but He will come. He does not tell us when He is coming, He only tells us to watch for Him, because He may come at any time.”
"Seems He's telling me to watch all the time," returned the little one earnestly.
"Not come yet," and the child was disappointed— "Not come yet," and she had watched for Him for a whole week—"Not come yet," and she must soon go back to her home, and its dark surroundings, although she was full of joy at the prospect of telling Willie, her only brother, that He was coming.
"Not come yet," dear reader, and it is more than nineteen hundred years since the promise was given— but, "He that shall come, will come, and will not tarry.”
He will not tarry for the unbelief of the world, or the sleeping hearts of His own, or the power of Satan spread abroad.
"In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye we shall be changed.”
"We," those who know Him and love Him—those born of the Holy Spirit, redeemed by His blood, made members of His body, and united to Him in the glory. That "same Jesus" who went up in the clouds in the act of blessing His disciples after eating with them in His resurrection body, shall so come in like manner. They did not doubt the angel's word, so returned to Jerusalem with great joy, worshiping and praising.
Many of us cannot understand the resurrection, but we can believe it. We cannot understand how the seedling becomes the flower, or the acorn the tree, but we see it, and know the transformation is actual. It is far more wonderful, that "in the twinkling of an eye," this body shall be changed into one like unto His own, without passing through decay and death. But Christ is the first fruits of the resurrection and He tarried forty days to make their hearts sure, before He ascended.
As surely as He is risen, so surely will you and I rise again, but alas! if you are not His, your resurrection body will only be given you to endure the eternal misery which Satan must endure, and which he, in hatred, lures you to suffer with him.
"He has not come yet," and the day of grace is still yours; the call of love still resounding.
"Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.”
But if He came today, or comes tomorrow, and you have not hidden yourself under the shelter of His precious blood, you will be left in the world when the Holy Spirit will no more restrain Satan and his tools; no more plead with sinners; no more enable hearts to "see Jesus." And if you die unsaved, you will not rise to meet Him in the air, and so be "forever with the Lord." Your body will lie untouched until the resurrection of the unsaved, and then only rise to receive judgment.
"Depart from Me I never knew you," and so enter the place prepared for the devil and his angels.
"Seems He's telling me to watch all the time," said the child. The wondrous glad hope of the Christian's heart; the ray of gold that gilds every cloud of sorrow, and separation, and death. Only, "until He come," do we part from our dear ones, who pass over unto the other side, and that, "Until" may be "Today," "Tomorrow.”
"Those that sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.”
Only, "until He come," we suffer, serve, and strive—but at any moment we may see His glorious face, and hear His voice and so be with Him forever.
But for those that know Him not, it means the door shut upon everlasting happiness; the Savior changed into a judge; the mercy into wrath; the glory of heaven lost forever.
O! dear reader, if you know Him, He is telling you "to watch all the time," making it the radiant hope to brighten your heart, and strengthen your footsteps.
If you do not know Him, He is calling while your eye is on this page, longing to gather you before the storm breaks. Not yet for you the blackness, and the cry of "Lost, lost." Not yet is the face of Christ turned from you—will you not accept Him and His finished work now, and rejoice in the hope of the glory which shall be revealed?
There is a door that stands ajar,
And through its portals gleaming,
A radiance from the cross, afar
The Savior's love revealing—
O! depth of mercy can it be
That gate is left ajar for me,
For me. Is left ajar for me.