But he will save them finally by taking them out of the world. Now, do
not take my word for it; look this doctrine up in your Bible, and if you
find it there, bow down to it and receive it as the word of God. Take
Matthew 24:48,50: "But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart,
my Lord delayeth his coming ... the Lord of that servant shall come in a
day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
and shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the
hypocrites; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Take 2 Peter
3:4,5: "There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their
own lusts, and saying, where is the promise of his coming? for since the
fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning
of the creation." Go out on the streets of Chicago and ask men about the
return of our Lord, and that is just what they would say: "Ah, yes, the
Lord delayeth his coming!"
"Behold, I come quickly," said Christ to John, and the last prayer in
the Bible is, "Even so, come Lord Jesus, come quickly." Were the early
Christians disappointed then? No; no man is disappointed who obeys the
voice of God. The world waited for the first coming of the Lord; waited
for 4,000 years, and then he came. He was here only thirty-three years
and then he went away; but he left us a promise that he would come
again; and as the world watched and waited for his first coming and did
not watch in vain, so now to them who wait for his appearing shall he
appear a second time unto salvation. Now let the question go round, "Am
I ready to meet the Lord if he comes to-night?" "Be ye also ready, for
in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh."
There is another thought I want to call your attention to, and that is
this: Christ will bring all our friends, with him when he comes. All who
have died in the Lord are to be with him when he comes in the clouds of
heaven. "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first
resurrection: on such the second death has no power, but they shall be
priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand
years," Rev. 20:6. "But the rest of the dead lived not again until the
thousand years were past; this is the first resurrection" (verse 5). That
looks as if the church were to have a thousand years with Christ before
the final judgment, when Satan shall be cast out, and there shall be new
heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Now, I want to give you some texts to study.
When we eat the Lord's supper we show forth his death, until he
come. 1 Cor. xi. 26.
We are using our talents, until he come. Luke xix. 13.
We are fighting the good fight of faith, until he come. 1 Tim
vi. 12-14.
We are enduring tribulation, until he come. 2 Thes. i. 7.
We are to be patient, until he come. James v. 8.
We wait for the crown of righteousness, until he come. 2 Tim.
iv. 8.
We wait for the crown of glory, until he come. 1 Pet. v. 4.
We wait for re-union with departed friends, until he come. 1
Thes. iv. 13-18.
We wait for Satan to be bound, until he come. Rev. xx. 3.
And so let us watch and wait till he comes.
D. L. Moody, who is perhaps the most popular and efficient
preacher of the gospel of Christ in the world, to-day, is
evidently fully committed to a belief in the speedy coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ, to judge the world and establish his
eternal kingdom. Looking over the published reports of his
sermons in Great Britain and in this country, since the
beginning of 1874, I give extracts which go to show in a plain
light the man's inner love and hope as relates to the last
things, and his warm, bold, consistent manner of expressing the
same. Thousands pray, God bless D. L. Moody.
1. Mr. Moody proclaims that the grand symbols of Daniel's,
second and seventh chapters, announce four dominant world
empires, and but four, to cover all centuries of human
probation.
2. That these kingdoms are and were Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece
and Rome.
3. That these have had their day of earthly supremacy and the
last has nearly passed away.
4. That the fifth kingdom of Daniel is God's, to come in its
order as the fifth, to overthrow all previous kingdoms, to be a
visible and eternal kingdom, and to be established by Christ in
person at his second coming.
5. That the stone cut from the mountain denotes "Christ
himself," "at his appearing and kingdom," whose advent "is not
far distant," and for whose advent "the whole creation groans."
Rom. 8:19-22.
6. That the last days, described by our Saviour in Matt.
24:37-39 as resembling the days of Lot and Noah, are already
here; observing, "I do not think the day is far distant when our
Lord will return." And again, "just as judgment overtook
Belshazzar carousing at his feast, so will judgment come
suddenly and swiftly upon the world revelling in its sins."
* * * * *
The foregoing he preached in the City Hall, Glasgow, March 15th,
1874, before three thousand people. On the same day he preached
on "Christ's Second Coming" in the Free church (Pres.), telling
the churches that every thirtieth verse in the New Testament
bears on that glorious coming; and says the _London Christian_,
"With his usual power he showed what a mighty motive this
doctrine is to all who are winning souls. He himself had found
it rousing him to ten-fold more effort to save all that could be
rescued from the coming wreck."
In Philadelphia, in a discourse on Daniel's second chapter, he
said: "This dream has been nearly fulfilled as Daniel
interpreted it. In the present age the prophecy is nearly
completed, and the hour of the Lord's second coming is close at
hand." D. T. T.
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