It was a wet day in the month of January, 1915, and the lady of the house stood in her spare room, busily preparing it for a guest, whom she expected in a few hours. But while neglecting nothing that would be for his comfort, there was no hope in it; no anticipation of pleasure; no joy. The coming one was a stranger. A soldier, a British soldier, one prepared to give his life in the defense of his country, and she was a fellow-countrywoman: he was no foe; he was worthy to be received with kindness and courtesy; but he was a stranger...
Two years have passed, and again we see that lady. It is a cold frosty night, early in 1917; and she and her husband are in their dining room. The curtains are closely drawn over the window, a bright fire is burning in the grate, and a pair of slippers are warming in the fender; supper is laid on the table. All is ready, waiting for a guest. The gentleman has a book before him, but he is not reading it; the lady takes up her needlework, but soon drops it. “What time is his train due?” “When can he get here?” Over and over the questions are asked, and the few footsteps that are heard outside are eagerly listened to. No, only the policeman’s measured beat; or the hesitating step of a belated neighbor as he gropes his way along the darkened road; they wait, they listen; “Here he is!” Yes, a quick, firm step on the hard pathway; and before the latch of the garden gate can be lifted, the hall door is flung wide, and two glad voices exclaim, “Welcome home!” from the battlefields of France.
What a contrast between those two preparations! And yet the persons were the same! It was the same hostess, the same guest; but shat made the difference? In the first case, it was a stranger who was expected; in the second, is dearly loved friend, known, respected, and honored.
Dear reader of Gospel Gleanings, you have often heard of Another Who is coming, and coming soon, the Lord Jesus Christ. What is your attitude towards that coming? Does your heart bound forward with joy at the thought of meeting Him; of seeing for yourself the very One Who laid down His life for you; of gazing on that Face once so marred more than any man’s, but now the glory of all the glory of heaven; of falling in adoring worship before those Feet which once were pierced on Calvary? Is it so? or, like the lady of the story, do you dread the thought of His coming as that of a Stranger? If still He is a Stranger to you, you well may dread it; for if He comes as a Stranger; He comes taking vengeance. Make no mistake. This same Jesus, Who when here was known as the Friend of publicans and sinners, and IS the Friend of sinners today, will say in that day, “Those Mine enemies who would not that I should reign over them, bring hither and slay them before Me.”
But He is coming, whatever men may say. He is coming first to the air, to call every blood-bought and redeemed one to meet Him there. Open your Bible on 1 Thessalonians, 4:16, 17, and read the manner of His coming. That coming will be entirely sovereign grace, pure, unalloyed GRACE. Not one in those ransomed myriads that will rise from their graves, or as living ones be changed into the likeness of His body of glory, deserve, or could deserve such a favor. “Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace,” for “if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him” (1 Theses. 4:14). “And so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
Yes, with Him in the Father’s house; with Him, presented unto Himself a glorious church, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; with Him in the glories and peace of heaven while judgment on judgment is poured on the unbelieving, Christ-rejecting people of earth. With Him while the “day of the Lord,” that day that shall be “darkness and not light, even very dark and no brightness in it” (Amos, 5:20), comes “as a thief in the night,” and God makes inquisition for blood, even the blood of His beloved Son once slain by wicked hands. That blood which now speaks pardon to every soul who trusts it, will then cry for vengeance; and days of tribulation, such as have never been, and never shall be again (Matt. 24:2121For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. (Matthew 24:21)) shall culminate with the shining forth from heaven of the Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints. Yes, and with “His mighty angels,” too, “in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power” (2 Thess. 1:8, 98In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: 9Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; (2 Thessalonians 1:8‑9)). Then “He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked” (Is. 11:4), bringing in a scene of unparalleled peace and rest (as the verses following that last quotation show, among many others). Then shall this groaning creation be delivered, and all that is now so wrong will be righted by the only One with title as well as power to do so. God has declared, “I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more, until He come Whose right it is; and I will give it Him” (Ezekiel 21:2727I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him. (Ezekiel 21:27)).
Yes, dear reader, “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)). “He is not slack concerning His promise,” “but His longsuffering is salvation,” for He is “not willing that any (that YOU) should perish, but that all (YOU among them; should come to repentance” (2 Peter, 3:9). “Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee” (Job 22:2121Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee. (Job 22:21)).
Coming! Christ Himself is coming!
Soon our eyes shall see
Him in all the peerless glory
Of His majesty.
Coming! Lord, with joy we hail Thee!
“Even so,” we cry,
Answering Thy heart’s deep longing
For the day that’s nigh.