Wipe off your tears, ye saints of the Most High, and grieve the absence of your Lord no longer; for do you not remember that he said to his disciples before his death, “I will come again.” And hear the testimony of the two angels that stood by when he ascended; hear this, I say, and let your countenance beam with joy, and your hearts overflow with gladness, “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” But previons to the coming of Christ, Judah and Israel shall be restored from their long dispersion, (and this shall be attended with greater signs and wonders than the deliverance of Israel from the Egyptian bondage. Jer. xvi: 14.) and will come to their own land and rebuild Jerusalem and the cities of Judea, and rear the temple of their God: And then the envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim but they shall dwell in peace.

The earth also shall undergo a change, for the mountains will be thrown down, the valleys exalted, the rough places will become smooth and the crooked places straight, and the barren deserts fruitful, and the parched ground well watered, and even the beasts of prey being wrought upon by the Spirit of God will lose their thirst for blood and being restored to their primeval state will derive all their food from the vegetable world.—The signs of the coming of Christ will be most awful and alarming, for there shall be earthquakes, distress of nations, sword and pestilence, men’s hearts failing them for fear, the stars shall fall, the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood. Then shall appear the sign of the son of Man in heaven, and at the sight of this personage the tribes of the earth shall mourn, but the saints of the Most High shall rejoice with great joy and exclaim “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

The coming of Christ will cause greater excitement than any thing that ever has transpired in the world since the creation of man. The Jews will look upon him; and beholding his wounds with sympathy, will ask, “What are these wounds in thy hands, feet and side?” and he shall say “These I received in the house of my friends.” “Then they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his first-born.—” And those who have rejected the everlasting gospel, and persecuted the church of Christ and wasted it, will desire to be concealed from his majestic frown: But how will this terror be augmented when he reminds them of acts of kindness which they might have performed but neglected; but their reply is “Lord when saw we thee in distress and did not misister unto thee?” Then shall the King answer them saying, “Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these my followers, ye did it not to me.” And beholding the son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven attended with ten thousand of his host, we shall be ready to inquire, Is this the despised Nazarene! Is this, the man of sorrows! Is this he, whom they sought to kill! Is this the person that had no where to lay his head until he reclined it upon the cross, between two thieves! Is this him they once crowned with thorns! Yes, this is the very identical character, but O how changed! He is now crowned with a never fading diadem and invested with all his Father’s glory—in everlasting Pomp to Reign.

When we consider the events that shall take place on this important day we may ask with the prophet “But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fuller’s soap.” Now is the day for calling, but that will be a day of choosing. “For he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.” The ministers of the gospel are now sent forth to sow the seeds of eternal life, and tares and wheat grow together until this day then the angels shall bind the tares in bundles for to be burned. The virgins are now exhorted to [p. 730]