As I have of late looked around to find the humble followers of
the meek and lowly Jesus, my mind has been much exercised. Many
who profess to be looking for the speedy coming of Christ are
becoming conformed to this world and seek more earnestly the applause
of those around them than the approbation of God. They are cold
and formal, like the nominal churches from which they but a short
time since separated. The words addressed to the Laodicean church
describe their present condition perfectly. (See Rev. 3:14-20.)
They are "neither cold nor hot," but "lukewarm"
. And unless they heed the counsel of the "faithful and true
Witness," and zealously repent and obtain "gold tried
in the fire," "white raiment," and "eye-salve,"
He will spew them out of His mouth.
The time has come when a large portion of those who once rejoiced
and shouted aloud for joy in view of the immediate coming of the
Lord, are on the ground of the churches and the world who once
derided them for believing that Jesus was coming, and circulated
all manner of falsehoods to raise prejudice against them and destroy
their influence. Now, if any one longs after the living God, hungering
and thirsting for righteousness, and God gives him to feel His
power, and satisfies his longing soul by shedding abroad His love
in his heart, and if he glorifies God by praising Him, he is,
by these professed believers in the soon coming of the Lord, often
considered deluded, and charged with being mesmerized or having
some wicked spirit.
Many of these professed Christians dress, talk, and act like the
world, and the only thing by which they may be known is their
profession. Though they profess to be looking for Christ, their
conversation is not in heaven, but on worldly things. "What
manner of persons" ought those to be "in all holy conversation
and godliness," who profess to be "looking for and hasting
unto the coming of the day of God." 2 Peter 3:11, 12. "Every
man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is
pure." 1 John 3:3. But it is evident that many who bear the
name of Adventist study more to decorate their bodies and to appear
well in the eyes of the world than they do to learn from the Word
of God how they may be approved of Him.
What if the lovely Jesus, our pattern, should make His appearance
among them and the professors of religion generally, as at His
first advent? He was born in a manger. Follow Him through His
life and ministry. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with
grief. These professed Christians would be ashamed of the meek
and lowly Saviour who wore a plain, seamless coat, and had not
where to lay His head. His spotless, self-denying life would condemn
them; His holy solemnity would be a painful restraint upon their
lightness and vain laughter; His guileless conversation would
be a check to their worldly and covetous conversation; His declaring
the unvarnished, cutting truth, would manifest their real character,
and they would wish to get the meek pattern, the lovely Jesus,
out of the way as soon as possible. They would be among the first
to try to catch Him in His words, and raise the cry, "Crucify
Him! Crucify Him!"
Let us follow Jesus as He so meekly rode into Jerusalem, when
"the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and
praise God with a loud voice, . . . saying, Blessed be the King
that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory
in the highest. And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude
said unto Him, Master, rebuke Thy disciples. And He answered and
said unto them, I tell you that if these should hold their peace,
the stones would immediately cry out." A large portion of
those who profess to be looking for Christ would be as forward
as the Pharisees were to have the disciples silenced, and they
would doubtless raise the cry, "Fanaticism! Mesmerism! Mesmerism!"
And the disciples, spreading their garments and branches of palm
trees in the way, would be thought extravagant and wild. But God
will have a people on the earth who will not be so cold and dead
but that they can praise and glorify Him. He will receive glory
from some people, and if those of His choice, those who keep His
commandments, should hold their peace, the very stones would cry
out. Jesus is coming, but not as at His first advent, a babe in
Bethlehem; not as He rode into Jerusalem, when the disciples praised
God with a loud voice and cried, "Hosanna"; but in the
glory of the Father and with all the retinue of holy angels to
escort Him on His way to earth. All heaven will be emptied of
the angels, while the waiting saints will be looking for Him and
gazing into heaven, as were the men of Galilee when He ascended
from the Mount of Olivet. Then only those who are holy, those
who have followed fully the meek Pattern, will with rapturous
joy exclaim as they behold Him, "Lo, this is our God; we
have waited for Him, and He will save us." And they will
be changed "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the
last trump"--that trump which wakes the sleeping saints,
and calls them forth from their dusty beds, clothed with glorious
immortality, and shouting, "Victory! Victory over death and
the grave!" The changed saints are then caught up together
with the angels to meet the Lord in the air, never more to be
separated from the object of their love.
With such a prospect as this before us, such a glorious hope,
such a redemption that Christ has purchased for us by His own
blood, shall we hold our peace? Shall we not praise God even with
a loud voice, as did the disciples when Jesus rode into Jerusalem?
Is not our prospect far more glorious than was theirs? Who dare
then forbid us glorifying God, even with a loud voice, when we
have such a hope, big with immortality, and full of glory? We
have tasted of the powers of the world to come, and long for more.
My whole being cries out after the living God, and I shall not
be satisfied until I am filled with all His fullness.