Knowing the Time.
I was on my way once in a country part to visit a family some distance from where I was staying. As a farmer brother was taking some young cattle to a distant pasture for the summer, and was going somewhat in the same direction, we went along part of the way together, enjoying a little fellowship one with another. All of a sudden we heard a long distant shout which was repeated once or twice. We looked round but could see no one, nor could we see any house in the direction from which the voice came. On one of us looking at his watch, we quickly understood what it meant, for it was just about twelve o'clock noon. No doubt the shout was the call home to some one plowing in the field, from some farm house hidden behind the bush. This led to a conversation about another shout, that is mentioned in the Scriptures, and how we who believe in, and know as our Savior, that blessed Person at God's right hand, may at any moment now be called Home by the Lord Himself descending from heaven with a shout.
1 Thess. 4:1616For 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: (1 Thessalonians 4:16). This dear farmer brother then told me that many a time when he had been working away in the field plowing, and he thought it was near the time, he had stopped at the end of a furrow and listened to hear the shout that was to call him home to his mid-day meal and a short rest for himself and his horses. We both agreed that we Christians should now be just in the same state of expectancy with regard to our blessed Lord's coming again; who descending from heaven with a shout will call us home, not to a short rest, and then turn out again; but to " go no more out " to enjoy " the rest that remaineth for the people of God " forever. If Paul in his day could speak of " knowing the time," and say then " the night is far spent and the day is at hand," referring to the return of the Lord Jesus, how very, very much more spent must it be now that eighteen hundred years and more have rolled away? Yes, dear fellow-believer, dear brother or sister in Christ, the night is very far spent. Our Lord is soon coming (perhaps before I finish writing, or you finish reading this) to take His blood-bought Church, His own, that are in the world, HOME.
He is coming to take us Home to the Father's house in glory, for He loves us as He loves Christ. He is coming to take us Home to the joy and rest of being forever with and like the blessed Lord Himself. Then we shall see the face of the One who has loved us, cared for us, and so faithfully kept and sustained and borne with us here. Then He will have His exceeding joy in having us round Himself and with Himself up there. We shall have fullness of joy, in being there with Him forever, and with one another, unhindered by anything within ourselves or around us. No wonder that it is called " that blessed hope " in Titus 2:1313Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; (Titus 2:13).
To look within and see no stain,
Abroad no curse to trace,
To shed no tears, to feel no pain,
But see Him face to face.
To find each hope of glory gained,
Fulfilled each precious word,
And fully all to have attained
The image of our Lord.
Reader, how is it with you and with me? Are we pausing at the end of the furrow, so to speak, and listening, yes, even as we go along our daily course, listening, expecting to hear that shout, " knowing the time? "
The general Laodicean spirit, that luke-warm state as to what is due to the blessed Lord Himself is the last state described in Rev. 3., before the Church is seen as in the next two chapters up in heaven, under the figure of twenty-four elders, etc. It is that which characterizes the professing Church now. It all tells us that we may " know the time," that we are in the very last of the last days, soon to be caught up to meet our Lord in the air. He will " descend from heaven with a shout " for us. He wants us to be looking out for Him, for He said, " Let your loins be girded about and your lamps burning, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, that when He cometh and knocketh, they may open to Him immediately.... Blessed are those servants..... " Luke 12. May it be thus with you and me dear reader. May we not cherish other hopes and plans for ourselves here that would put off the hope of His coming for us till after our plans have been carried out.
It is all right to attend to daily duties if abiding in the calling wherein we were called " with God."
It is all right according to our gift and the ability God has given us, to be out in the field for Christ, laboring among souls, plowing, sowing, reaping or watering, as the case may be, as God gives us opportunities. But let it be with us as it was with our dear farmer brother when he was in the field, and when he knew (as we ought to know) the time was near for the shout to be heard to call him home. If we have any other hope set before us down here, it matters not what it is, that takes the place of the hope set before us up there, we shall not, we cannot be found watching for Him when He comes, but sleeping