of Christ's coming was the "blessed hope" in the patriarchal
age. In Job's dark hour of trial his heart clung to the promise, and he
was kept from despair:

"I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter
day upon the earth: ... whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall
behold, and not another." Job 19:25-27.

The psalmist sang of it:

"Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour
before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him." Ps. 50:3.

And the prophets of later times were unceasingly moved upon to talk of
the glory of that coming, of events preceding it, and of the preparation
for it.

"I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold
their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not
silence." "Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world,
Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold,
His reward is with Him, and His work before Him." Isa. 62:6, 11.

The message of His coming is to be heralded to the ends of the earth;
for it is "good tidings of great joy" to every one who will receive it.

On that last night with His disciples before the crucifixion, when His
heart was sorrowful even unto death, as the burden of all our
iniquities was about to be laid upon Him, Christ's love for His own made
precious to Him the thought of His second coming to gather them home at
last, safe from all sin and trouble; and He said:

"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me.
In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a
place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that
where I am, there ye may be also." John 14:1-3.

In that assurance the heart finds rest. O the preciousness of the
promise, "I will come again"! "I am coming for you," is the cheering
message. "Yes, Lord," we reply, "we will wait, and watch, and be ready,
by Thy grace."

The Manner of His Coming

Christ's second coming is to be visible to all the world. There is to be
nothing secret or mystical about it. The revelator says:

"Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him." Rev. 1:7.

Christ Himself described the scene to His disciples as it will appear to
the eyes of all:

"As the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the
west; so shall a