“And they shall see His face: and His name shall be in their foreheads.” “And behold I come quickly and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly.”— Rev. 22:4, 12, 204And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. (Revelation 22:4)
12And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. (Revelation 22:12)
20He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. (Revelation 22:20).
TAKE courage, tried children of God, oppressed by sadness, enfeebled by sickness, burdened with sorrow, worn with suffering: “for yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry” (Heb. 10:3737For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. (Hebrews 10:37)). What a little while is in His estimation we cannot know, but we know that He regards “a thousand years as one day,” (2 Pet. 3:88But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. (2 Peter 3:8)), and hence it has not been two days, as time is reckoned in heaven, since he ascended from the Mount of Olives.
It may not be one day of twenty-four hours before you hear His glad shout, summoning you from your bed of pain, summoning your beloved ones from the tomb, summoning his tired saints from the wearisome journey of life. Then you will have a body “fashioned like unto His glorious body” (Phil. 3:2121Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. (Philippians 3:21)).
Then you will be so beautiful the Holy Ghost exclaims in admiration, “WHO IS THIS THAT COMETH UP FROM THE WILDERNESS, LEANING UPON HER BELOVED?” Until you can lean upon Him in the day of your espousals, let your desire be expressed in the prayer of the bride, “Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm” (Song 8:5, 6), the place of security, the place of His infinite love and omnipotent power, and rest thus in calm confidence.
“Content to walk in paths of His own choosing,
Since He will hold thy hand along the way:
Content to know that thou art journeying homeward,
And brighter grows the pilgrim’s path each day.”
It may be night about you now, but “the night is far spent, the day is at hand” (Rom. 13:1212The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. (Romans 13:12)). Three times in the last chapter of the Bible does the Saviour repeat the sweet promise,
“Behold, I come quickly,”
“Behold I come quickly,” “Surely I come quickly” (Rev. 22:7, 12, 207Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book. (Revelation 22:7)
12And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. (Revelation 22:12)
20He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. (Revelation 22:20)); and all we have to do, all we can do, is to look up and wait and watch with the cry upon our lips and in our hearts,
“Even so, come, Lord Jesus!”
The dark mystery of suffering will then be so clear, we will wonder at ourselves that we ever complained or doubted for an instant. What is a bitter drop to a boundless sea of bliss? What is a second of pain to an eternity of glory? We may inquire with Daniel, and, like him, inquire in vain, for an explanation of perplexing providences, and for fuller knowledge, but at the time of the end, when Jesus comes, every sorrow here shall shine with a strange luster, every suffering endured or earth shall be an advanced step up the everlasting hills: “and there shall be no night there.”
“So I am watching quietly every day.
Whenever the sun shines brightly, I rise and say,
‘Surely it is the shining of His face’
And look unto the gates of His high place
Beyond the sea:
For I know He is coming shortly to welcome me.
And when a shadow falls across the window of my room,
Where I am working my appointed task,
I lift my head to watch the door, and ask if He has come:
And the angel answers softly, in my home,
‘Only a few more shadows, and He will come.’”
If we had no other reason for watching, it ought to be enough for His followers and friends to know that He bids them watch with girded loins, and burning lights, and hand upon the hall door waiting for His return.
“Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching.”