or us to
dogmatize on the unrevealed period of the "glorious appearing." The
millennial trumpet may in all probability sound over our slumbering
dust--the millennial sun shine on the turf which may for centuries have
covered our graves!--But _who_, on the other hand, dare venture to
question the _possibility_ of the nearer alternative?--that the Judge
may be "standing before the door"--the shadow of the Advent Throne even
now projected on an unthinking and unbelieving world! "He that _shall_
come _will_ come, and will not tarry!"--Although it be true that
eighteen hundred years have elapsed since that utterance was made, and
still no gleam of the coming morning streaks the horizon--although the
calculations and longing expectations of the Church have hitherto only
issued in successive disappointments, yet the hour _is_ nearing! As
grain by grain drops in Time's sand-glass, it gives new significance and
truthfulness to the Divine monition--"Behold, I come quickly!"

Ah! if He _may_ come _soon_--if He MUST come at some time, how shall I
meet Him? Will it be with joy? Am I shaping my course in life--my
plans--my schemes--my wishes with what I feel would be in accordance
with His will? Am I conscious of doing nothing that would lead me to be
ashamed before Him at His coming? It would save many a perplexity--it
would soothe many a heart-ache, and dry many a tear--if we were to make
this great culminating event in the world's history, with all its
elevating motives, more our guide and regulator than we do;--living each
day, and _all_ our days, as if _possibly_ the very next hour might
disclose "the sign of the Son of Man in the midst of the Heavens!" Not
building our nests too fondly here--not too anxious to nestle in
creature comforts, but occupying faithfully the talents to be traded on
which He has committed to our stewardship; straining the eye of faith,
like the mother of Sisera, for His approaching chariot; and amid our
griefs, and separations, and sorrows, listening to the sublime inspired
antidote--"Stablish your hearts, FOR _the coming of the Lord draweth
nigh_."

Blessed--glorious--happy day! And as His _first_ coming was terminated
by His Ascension, so will there be a second Ascension at His _second_
Advent, with this important difference, however, that, as in the former,
He left His Church behind Him, orphaned and forlorn, to battle in a
world of sorrow and sin; in the other, not one unit among the rejoicing
myr