Dawn on the hills, and darkness on the plain—
Calm in the harbor, storm upon the seas,
Hope’s star shines clear above the soul’s deep pain;
Faith HOLDS the promise, and the darkness flees.
We KNOW, yet wait for fuller knowledge given—
Our feet stand firm ‘mid error’s sweeping tides;
“Lo! I am coming,” speaks the Voice from heaven.
We cannot sink while His strong love abides.
H. W.
THE great reality pressing upon my heart this last month of the year, is the fact of the imminence of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ from heaven. But who cares for Christ today? And yet He holds the destinies of all in His pierced Hands. How the world’s darkness spreads! It was dark when Christ was on earth, but it is darker now, dark with the presage of the Apostacy and the awful judgments to follow. Eternity is creeping on; eternity with all its deep and overwhelming realities. Do you not feel it? I seem to see its shadowing arms outstretched over the world in which you live. You are going on to its embrace, you cannot stop yourselves. Yes, it is close. I see the old men, standing with their eyes fixed, gazing on the future. They shake their gray heads saying, as they feel the shadows round them, “We are going, we are going.” And the answer comes as an echo from eternity, “going, going.” And I watch the strong and resolute, and as they grasp the realities of the present with a man’s purpose to do and dare, they try and face the future in the great fact of the present, saying, “We are living; we are doing.” And the answer comes as an echo from beyond, “living, doing.” And hark! I hear the trip of little feet, and the children of the world come pressing on upon the paths of time. They come laughing with the sunshine on their foreheads. They cry as they bound onward with radiant eyes, and expectant hearts, “We are coming”; and the future echoes back solemnly, “Coming, coming.” Yes, as all the mighty rivers and streams and rivulets of the earth find their ways into the mighty oceans that beat upon its shores, so the rivers of humanity, from every continent and island, are absorbed in the great ocean of eternity. One said “eternity” was stamped upon his eye-balls. Another wrote “eternity” on the pavement as he went unknowingly to his death the same day, dying to save another from drowning. Oh if one could write across the heavens for all to see, “Eternity! Christ is coming!” or stand on the peak of earth’s mightiest mountain and cry, with the voice of the angel, who cried to earth and heaven, that “time should be no more,” that Christ was coming, would men and women awake to the awful solemnity of the fact that they were not prepared to meet Him? Sinner! Christ is coming! Will that startle you out of your self-righteousness? Will that make you think of someone beside yourself. Christ is coming! Does that alarm you, drunkard? Think of hell, and the eternal thirst of the lost. Think of the unavailing prayer for a drop of water in the unquenchable fire. Christ is coming! Blasphemer, do you not fear His coming? The One you have cursed is coming, is coming quickly. How shall you dare to look Him in the face at the judgment day—the One you have blasphemed so often? Christ is coming! Are you prepared, immortal ones, to meet Him? Are you prepared to face a holy God? Christ is coming! careless, and indifferent ones. The One you treat so lightly will soon return; He may come as you read this, and leave you behind for eternal woe, Christ is coming!— you who have dared to deny His Deity, who have denied the accuracy of His utterances, and have denied also the inspiration of the scriptures that speak of Him, the lie of your life will soon be made manifest; and your tongue will soon have to own Him Lord, to the glory of God the Father, but to your eternal condemnation. Before you are driven from His presence, your knees will be made to bow, and your guilt-stained heart will acknowledge His supremacy. Poor creatures of an hour; with the straws of your vain thoughts you have dared to challenge the omnipotence of God—and with your airy fancies you have sought to soar into the sun of the eternal purposes and decrees of the Almighty God. Bow before Him now and acknowledge your sins, lest He accept your challenge, and judge you out of the Book you have despised, and by the One for Whom you have had scant reverence—His only begotten Son. But hark! a gentle voice seems to whisper in my ear, “Bid them come to Me and live. I will save them if they come.” It is the Saviour who speaks—ready to save you as you read —ready to save you now.
The One who is coming for His people, and whom we expect any minute, is willing to save to the uttermost all who come to Him confessing their sins. Do not let December pass without accepting Christ as your Saviour. If you do accept Him, old things will pass away with the old year, and all things become new with the “New Year.
Heyman Wreford.