I HAD been preaching the gospel in the open air in one of the small rural villages of Devonshire one summer evening a few years ago, and among the listeners was a Christian farmer upon whom I had called a day or two before. At the close of the preaching the farmer kindly offered to show me a way to the hamlet where I was lodging, nearer than by the main road over which I had come, and as we walked along in the dusk I asked, how many real Christians — converted persons — he thought there were in the village we had just left? After a few minutes’ consideration, he replied, very thoughtfully: “Well, I think I can speak for two,” and named the two persons that he thought might be considered such.
“I suppose you know all the people in the village pretty well?”
“Oh, yes,” he replied, “every one, I think.”
I had been speaking a little, during that preaching, of Christ’s second coming; showing that the Word of God plainly teaches that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back again to take away all that are His from this earth.
“They that are Christ’s at His coming” (1 Cor. 15:2323But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. (1 Corinthians 15:23)). Although the Scriptures tell us this so distinctly, and it is their unvarying testimony from beginning to end, very few persons really believe it; and all kinds of theories and ideas are mixed up with it to weaken the force and simplicity of the fact. Some are apt to think that such an event would put a stop to all the world’s doings, and others that the end of the world will have arrived when this takes place; but supposing my friend’s estimate of the inhabitants of that little village to be a correct one, and that the Lord had come that night, only two persons would have been missing. Of course; our friend may have been mistaken. I hope he was. He could not see into their hearts, and perhaps the Lord knew that more than two, yea, many more poor sinners from that little village had accepted Him as their Savior. “The Lord knoweth them that are His” (2 Tim. 2:1919Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. (2 Timothy 2:19)). But, on that eventful day when the Lord Jesus Christ returns, the only persons missing from that village, or anywhere else, will be the true believers on the Lord Jesus Christ. “The dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:16, 1716For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16‑17)).
At some unexpected moment when everything seems just as usual, the shout will be heard by the Lord’s people, and they will be gone — gone from their place in the shop or at the desk — gone from the railway carriage and the ship’s deck — gone from the street of the busy city or the lonely country road. Without a sign or a warning, without a moment for preparation, the shout will be heard, and every single soul who has believed in the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior will be gone.
But that is not all, dear reader, your hope will be gone, too, if you are unsaved; if you are not Christ’s, your chance of becoming His will be gone; your opportunity for salvation will be gone; you will be left behind for judgment, for the coming wrath of God. It maybe you will wake up one morning, and find your believing parents gone, or your believing children, if you are a parent; your converted shop mate that has often been a laughing-stock to his companions will be gone; but remember, your chance of spending eternity with them will be gone too; and why? Not because they were better than you, but because they accepted Christ, and you did not; they believed God’s. Word, but you did not; they were washed in the precious blood of Christ, and you were not. They were Christ’s; you were not!
In another verse of that oft-repeated scripture, 1 Corinthians 15, it says, “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment.” Numberless are the times this has been read at the funerals of “all sorts and conditions of men,” but how few reflect on what it means. It is the commonest remark as to death, that “We must all go some day,” and of man as such this is quite true, for it is the common lot of man. “It is appointed unto men once to die” (Heb. 9:2727And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: (Hebrews 9:27)), but the very next verse says, “And unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.”
My dear friend, there is a double reason why you should get the question of your soul’s salvation settled; one is, that you may at any hour be called away in death, and the other is, that the Lord Jesus may at any moment return to take away those that are His, and afterward to take vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel. Remember that what settles the question of whether you and I will be among those that are “caught up” is, whether or not we are Christ’s. Poor, despised, ignorant, it may be, in the estimation of this world, but “the Lord knoweth them that are His;” and He is coming to take away those that are His before the wrath of God is poured out upon an unbelieving and ungodly world. “The dead shall be raised,” “The living shall be changed.” When? At His coming! Are you ready?
The children of God around you may have to pass through death, but the truth remains that thousands, aye, tens of thousands (blessed be His name!) who are now passing in and out amongst us, may not die at all, but may be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. This is the Christian’s proper hope. But, my reader, if you are still in your sins, what is your hope? If you die in your sins, without Christ, there is nothing before you but the second death, which is the lake of fire.
T. R.
WHEN a man is in a wrong road, the farther he goes in it the more he is astray. —J. N. D.