THE SIGN OF CHRIST’S COMING

 

 

By JOHN RODGER

 

 

As our Lord sat upon the Mount of Olives the disciples came unto Him privately and asked him two questions: let us consider their second question, and the Lord’s answer to it. This question was: “What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the age?” (Matt. 24: 3). The reply to that is found in verses 27 and 31, which are:- “as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. ... Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” On a previous occasion, a week before His transfiguration, our Lord said of Himself : “He shall come in His own glory, and in his Father’s, and of the holy angels” (Luke 9: 26). If we combine these three statements the conclusion is evident that it is our Lord’s threefold glory, as strikingly brilliant an illumination as the lightning flashing from one horizon to the other, which is the sign the disciples asked for. What then is this “glory”? and what are we told about it?

 

 

I. THE GLORY IS A DISPLAY OF EXCESSIVE LIGHT

 

 

A careful survey of references in the Scriptures to “the glory of the Lord” reveals that it is an overwhelming display of celestial light, far excelling the most intense brightness of the sun. Some commentators have explained “the glory of the Lord” as being that pillar of cloud and fire by which God led Israel from Egypt to the promised land. But the first time Israel was told that “the glory of the Lord” would appear to them next morning they had been quite accustomed to seeing the pillar, night and day, for some time. “God led them not through the ... land of the Philistines ... but God led ... through ... the Red Sea ... out of ... Egypt; the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud to lead them. ... He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night” (Ex. 13: 17-22). Thus some interval of time elapsed between their exit from Egypt led by the pillar and the occasion when Moses foretold to Israel: “in the morning ye shall see the glory of the Lord” (Ex. 16: 7). The uniqueness of the spectacle is apparent by emphasizing the preposition in Exodus 16: 10: “behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud.” A comparison of other scripture passages shows this was an unusually brilliant spectacle of intense light illuminating the pillar of cloud.

 

 

II. THIS EXCESSIVE LIGHT ANNOUNCES GOD’S PRESENCE

 

 

When the British sovereign visits Edinburgh he resides at Holyrood Palace. His actual arrival and presence there are announced by the hoisting of the Royal Standard on the palace flagstaff. As the writer used to pass within sight of this palace daily, he eagerly looked for this announcement that the King had come. What the flag, named the Royal Standard, reveals about the King, the glory of the Lord reveals about God, that He is here. The illumination attending the man whom Daniel saw at the side of the River Hiddekel, disclosed that person to be God: “His face as the appearance of lightning and His eyes as lamps of fire” (Dan. 10: 6). This was also part of the evidence given to Peter, James and John to disclose to them that Jesus was none other than the great God of Israel, the Lord of Hosts: “His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment while as light” (Matt. 17: 2), or, as it is in Luke’s account, giving Newberry’s marginal rendering: “His raiment was white and FLASHING AS LIGHTNING” (Luke 9: 29). Again, to Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus road, one part of the evidence to him that the crucified Jesus was none other than “the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2: 8) was that “at mid-day ... I saw a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun shining round about me” (Acts 26: 13). So was this characteristic evidence of identity present when the apostle John saw our Lord in Patmos: “His eyes were as a flame of fire, and His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength” (Rev. 1: 14, 16). Thus when Christ returns: “then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matt. 24: 31). “O Lord my God, Who coverest Thyself with light as with a garment” (Psalm 104: 1).

 

 

Three statements about the glory of the Lord reveal the intensity of the illumination it reveals:

 

 

1st. It was so superior to the light of the sun at noon near Damascus as to strike Saul blind: “I could not see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand.” “When his eyes were opened he saw no man ... he was three days without sight” (Acts 22: 11; 9: 8, 9).

 

 

2nd. Although, when Christ returns, the light of the sun is to be increased seven times, yet the more intense light of the Lord’s Glory will shame the sun’s light (Isa. 24: 3; 25: 7).

 

 

3rd In the New Jerusalem, the presence of the glory of God will be the only light needed, dispensing altogether with the need of sun, moon or artificial light (Rev. 21: 23; 22: 5).

 

 

This is only what is reasonable and to be expected; that God, the Creator, is superior to any of His works of creation, “God is Light;” God is “the Father of Lights”, the cause and source of all other lights.

 

 

III. CHRIST GAVE HIS SIGN TO ENABLE THE ELECT

TO DETECT FALSE CHRISTS

 

 

When the disciples asked our Lord: “What shall be the sign of Thy coming and of the end of the age?” Jesus answered and said unto then, “Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in My name, saying, ‘I am Christ,’ and shall deceive many. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, ‘Behold, he is in the desert,’ go not forth: ‘behold, he is in the secret chambers,’ believe it not. For as the lightning ... shineth ... so shall also the coming of the Son of man be; then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matt. 24: 3-5, 23-27, 30). One might mistake our Lord’s reference to lightning by concluding that He made it an illustration of the unexpectedness of His return. But that feature of his coming is illustrated by the unexpected visit of a thief (Matt. 24: 43). What the lightning does illustrate is the broadcast publicity and universal knowledge by all that He has come; for variety let us take Luke 17: 24, “as the lightning that lighteneth out of the one part of heaven shineth unto the other part under heaven, so shall also the Son of man be in His day ... Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven and then shall all the tribes of the earth ... see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matt. 24: 30). A parallel passage is Isaiah 40: 5. “For the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.” Christ exposes one characteristic feature of false Christs in that they affect secrecy, privacy, seclusion. By this peculiarity the elect should detect and expose false Christs. They will isolate themselves in secret chambers or lonely deserts and require to be diligently sought out. But when Christ comes all heaven shall blaze with light, so advertising His return: for He shall come in His own glory and of His Father’s and of the holy angels. The excessive brilliancy of this celestial glory over the whole earth shall make it unnecessary even for anyone to tell another that Christ has come again, “for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest” (Heb. 8: 11), “for the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Hab. 2: 14). While there will be no privacy or secrecy about the Lord’s return, it is well to discriminate between the seeing of ‘the glory of the Lord’ and the seeing of ‘His face’. While “all tribes of the earth”, “all flesh ... together” shall see his glory, it is only our Lord’s slaves who “shall see His face” (Rev. 22: 3, 4; 1 John 3: 2). To see our Lord’s face is a special privilege to those saints who have yielded themselves as slaves to God to obey His teaching (Rom. 6: 17, 18, 22), who have presented their bodies to Him as a living sacrifice (Rom. 12: 1, 2), who have obeyed Him by separating themselves from the world instead of loving and courting it (1 John 2: 15-25; Jas. 4: 4). The Glory of the Lord is His garment (Ps. 104: 1, 2), which all dwellers on earth shall see, but the intimacy of seeing Him face to face is reserved for those only who surrender all to Him.

 

 

IV. THE GLORY WILL ANNOUNCE THAT THE LORD

IS IN SUPREME COMMAND

 

 

When an admiral receives the command of a fleet of British warships, one of the ships is chosen for the admiral’s occupation and is then called the admiral’s flagship. When he boards the ship to assume supreme command of the fleet, a flag named the admiral’s flag is hoisted on his flagship, and all the other ships of the fleet keep a watch set on the admiral’s flagship for their orders, to inform the commanders of the other ships what the admiral commands them. In Israel’s wilderness wanderings ‘the glory of the Lord’ signified that Jehovah, the Lord, was in supreme command and not Moses and Aaron. The first time Israel saw the ‘Glory’ Moses emphasized this interpretation of it “in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the Lord for that He heareth your murmurings against the Lord: and what are we, that you murmur against us?” (Ex. 16: 7). The authority of God over Israel was also emphasized by the oft-repeated phrases: “as the Lord commandeth Moses”, and “according to the commandment of the Lord”. So will the Lord’s coming in His threefold glory, as lightning lighteneth up the whole earth from east to west, announce to all who dwell on the earth the establishment of theocracy, the reign of God, as the nature of the government of the earth. Autocracy, the independent government of one man, was thought to be swept away by the last war when the dynasties of the Sultan of Turkey, and the Czar, the autocrat of all the Russians, were abolished. But a new class of autocrats has arisen, called dictators, who prefigure the rise of the greatest autocrat of history, the Antichrist.

 

 

Democracy, “the government of the people, by the people, for the people,” has been amply proved a failure. It is notorious that strong-minded leaders sway crowds like chaff before the wind. How this was most ignominiously demonstrated in the swift change in the Jerusalem mob’s cry from “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord!” to, “Away with Him! Crucify Him!” How often since then has the instability of popular opinion been exposed as inconsistent as a weather vane, backing and veering with successive winds of fashionable mood. The overwhelming majority of individuals composing democracy are either too lazy mentally, too self-interested, or too mentally inefficient to form a conscientious conviction of their own. Both autocracy and democracy have been proved to the hilt to be incapable forms of government, so that our Lord has abundant justification for establishing theocracy instead. “He shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. Yea, all kings shall fall down before Him: all nations shall serve Him: and let the whole earth be filled with His glory” (Ps. 72: 8, 1, 19).

 

 

V. THE GLORY WILL DISCLOSE TO ALL ON EARTH THAT

THE CRUCIFIED JESUS IS GOD

 

 

Lately I listened to a Scottish parish minister expounding to his own congregation the text:- “And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it” (Isa. 40: 5). I listened sadly to his exposition that the present world-wide spread of Christianity was the fulfilment of that promise. But when that glory is revealed “all flesh shall see it together”. We already noted that “the glory of that light” (Acts 22: 11) was helpful in disclosing to Paul that the crucified Jesus was “the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2: 8). Paul states:- “He was seen of me also as to one born before the due time” (1 Cor. 15: 8, Schofield). So he dubs his second birth an abortion, because the remnant of his nation, Israel, who are alive when Christ returns, shall be also born again, every individual, by the sight of His glory, so a nation shall be born in a day (Isa. 66: 7-9; Zech. 12: 10; 13: 1). This is the proof Jesus gave the Sanhedrin in the high priest’s house, the evidence that shall convince all His nation (Matt. 26: 65). But, besides Israel, “all the tribes of the earth shall mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matt. 24: 30, cf. Rev. 1: 7; 6: 15-17). “He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations” (Isa. 35: 7). This is the veil Satan beclouds men’s intellects with at the present time, even when reading God’s Word (2 Cor. 3: 14, 15; 4: 3, 4; Eph. 4: 18). As the sun banishes darkness and mists so shall the Sun of righteousness abolish all infidelity, atheism and agnosticism from the minds of “all people ... all nations”, “all tribes of the earth”, “they shall not teach every man his neighbour and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord;’ for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest of them” (Heb. 8: 11, R.V.).

 

 

VI. THE GLORY ANNOUNCES BLESSING, PEACE AND PROSPFRITY

TO ALL ON EARTH

 

 

Many volumes would be required to do justice to this significance of the Glory; here we can only suggest where to find in detail the announcement of abundant blessings under government by theocracy, or by the Lord as King over the whole earth. Such promised blessings shall give to all who dwell on the earth an ideal life of bliss, such as has not been known since Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden. The absence of war and of ravenous beasts with much greater immunity from disease and death, the rich fertility of the soil, even of what is now barren desert land, prolific crops of cereals and fruit, abundance of cattle, special protection and care given to the poor and needy, shall ensure happiness, peace and prosperity for all. The following scriptures may help to pursue this theme of millennial bliss further: Isaiah, Chapters 4; 11, 12; 33, 54, 55; 60; 65: 17-25; 66: 10-24. Psalms, 46; 47; 48; 67; 97; 98; 99; 100. etc.

 

 

There is frequent mention of the shining of God’s face upon His saints, in Old Testament scriptures, which is always associated with God blessing them. The following are examples: Num. 6: 24, 26; Psalms 67; 21: 6; 31: 16; 44: 3; 80: 1, 3, 7, 19; 89: 15. On the other hand, the hiding of God’s face spells disaster and misery to them, as, for instances “Deut. 31: 17; Isa. 59: 2; Ezek. 39: 23, 24, 29.

 

 

Now what Ezekiel mentions as the hiding of God’s face from Israel, in Chapter 39, he had already announced as the withdrawal of “the glory of the great God of Israel” in Ezekiel 3: 23; 8: 3, 4; 10: 4, 18. While the return of that glory is described in Ezekiel 43: 2, 4, 5; 44: 4 and is otherwise stated in 39: 29:- “Neither will I hide My face any more from them.” Therefore the shining of God’s face, and the appearance of His glory, both refer to His blessing. In the New Testament we find also that the shining of Christ’s face, and seeing His glory, refer to the same incident:- “His face did shine as the sun;” “The fashion of His countenance was altered;” while we find these other references to that event:- “we beheld His glory” (John 1: 14), “they saw His glory” (Luke 9: 32), “He received from the Father honour and glory” (2 Pet. 1: 17).

 

 

VII. THE GLORY SHALL USHER IN SUMMARY JUSTICE

 

 

We sometimes are pleasantly surprised at the celerity and vigilance with which those whose duty it is to investigate crime can detect the offenders and bring them to justice. Yet we often find that criminals can defy detection and escape punishment. In large cities facilities abound for hiding evil-doers from justice; they sometimes also escape to other countries, in some cases where extradition is difficult or impossible; moreover, the culprit occasionally cheats human justice by committing suicide. In some places money can bribe judges to let prisoners go free, while it is not unknown for innocent persons to be wrongly convicted and punished by circumstantial evidence or perjury. But when the Greater than Solomon reigns, He who by His wisdom created the heavens and the earth, in whom all fulness dwells (Col. 1: 16, 19), the Personification and Source of true wisdom (Jas. 1: 5; 3: 17), He will detect unerringly every wrong act immediately. There will be no fugitive’s escape from Him. The experience of Jonah, the prophet, proved that, nearly three thousand years ago. It will be futile to try suicide to escape, for He has the keys of death and Hades (Rev. 1: 18), and being the omnipresent God (Ps. 139: 7-12) will be present in Hades to meet the departed spirit [and soul] arriving there. Our Lord as judge of all the earth shall never permit a wrongdoer to escape his recompense, nor will He ever mistake the perpetrator and punish the innocent. Now the very first appearance of “the glory of the Lord” mentioned, was meant as a warning to Israel for provoking God by their discontent:- “for that the Lord heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him: and what are we? Your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord” (Exod. 16: 8). The appearance of ‘the glory’ on that first occasion seemed meant even as the display of a cane to a class having unruly scholars. Again, in Numbers 20: 6 the same motive is apparent. Three other appearances of ‘the glory’ were followed by drastic, summary punishment to rebels in Israel (Num. 14: 10; 16: 19, 42). During the present Church age, God is long-suffering and patient, not willing that any should perish but that all should come unto Him and live. But when the veil of ignorance, at present beclouding men’s intellects has been removed, when Satan, who is the author of this beclouding veil, has been imprisoned, and when conditions of living all over the earth are vastly improved, these increased blessings will bring with them increased responsibility to all to obey the Lord, and will justify God punishing evildoers swiftly, without delay or probation.

 

 

This aspect of theocracy is foretold in several passages:- “He shall rule (the nations) with a rod of iron” (Rev. 19: 15). “For as much as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise” (Dan. 2: 40). So all sinners and rebels shall be as potter’s ware, so easily shattered under the strokes of an iron weapon. This distinctive feature of our Lord’s reign shall be administered by His saints also, who receive this position of authority as one of the rewards for overcoming, when even “the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matt. 13: 43). “He that overcometh and keepeth My words to the end, to him will I give authority over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter are they broken to pieces” (or shivers. Rev. 2: 26, 27, Schofield margin). Perhaps our Lord was referring to this distinctive feature of His future reign on earth when He made a promise of pardon in answer to Moses’ intercession for Israel’s forgiveness at Kadesh-Barnea:- “The Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word: but as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord” (Num. 14: 20, 21). As much as to say, “when the earth is filled with My glory, those who disobey Me shall be subdued or broken immediately”; “for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Isa. 11: 9). Increased knowledge brings increased condemnation. It may be well to explain that it is not at all likely that ‘the glory’ was given by our Lord to His disciples as the sign of His coming for His Church, but as the sign of His coming for the Believing remnant of Jews who follow and serve Christ after the Church is caught up to meet the Lord in the air (1 Cor. 15: 5I, 52; 1 Thess. 4: 16, 17). Many of these Jews who trust in Christ, after the [‘accounted worthy to escape’ members of] - Church is translated, may be converts brought into the Lord’s fold through the ministry of God’s two witnesses to be martyred in Jerusalem (Rev. 11: 3-12. [Cf. Luke 21: 36 A.V]).

 

 

VIII. THE GLORY WILL KEEP ALL NATIONS IN MIND

OF ISRAEL’S HISTORY

 

 

During this present age of grace, when Christ’s Church is being gathered out of the world, God’s methods and manner in governing Israel during Old Testament times are revealed to us now, as an object lesson and warning to His Saints in the Church (1 Cor. 10: 1-15; Rom. 15: 4). During the millennial age under theocracy, the whole of Israel’s history from the very beginning up to the return of our Lord to reign in Mount Zion, including their long sad experience at the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, and subsequent harrowing trials all through the centuries following, until the appearance of their Messiah in glory and all the holy angels with Him, shall be universally known by all nations. The lessons to be learnt from their departure from their great God along with His punishment for their disobedience and backsliding shall be clearly understood as an object lesson and warning to “all people that on earth do dwell”. Thus shall all understand clearly how they also can retain the Lord’s blessing and smile of approval; thus shall they be warned how they can incur His displeasure and severe discipline. So shall “the earth be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Isa. 11: 9). The Glory of the Lord shall continually remind all of Israel’s past history: “I will set My glory among the nations and all the nations shall see My judgment that I have executed, and My hands that I have laid upon them: the nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity; because they trespassed against Me, therefore hid I my face from them, and gave them into the hands of their enemies: so fell they all by the sword. According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto them, and hid My face from them” (Ezek. 39: 21-24).

 

 

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HAS THE CHURCH MISSED THE MARK?

 

 

By A YOUNG CHRISTIAN

 

 

This article by an unnamed young believer in The British Weekly (Aug. 11, 1949) is most refreshing, as proving that there are golden young hearts which will stand for God’s truth in the coming world crisis.” ED. DAWN.

 

 

THE Church, so I’m told, has failed in its purpose. I am not in favour of the past tense. Rather I would say, it is failing. Why is this?

 

 

Paul, you will remember, spoke of “pressing toward the mark of my high calling.” If we, members of the twentieth-century Church, are honestly trying to follow Christ, Paul’s high calling must be ours and therefore the Church’s also.

 

 

The Church, in its infancy, was merely a band (a large one, I grant you) of men and women who loved Christ more than life itself, and sought to be like Him. They wanted to do (and did) the things that He had done. They “went about doing good.” They told others about Him, about His love, His death and, most important of all, the glorious news of His resurrection.

 

 

The Church has travelled a long and a painful way since then. But, it turned the world upside down! Not even the imperial Roman eagle could stop its advance. Men lived gloriously and died singing, for its sake, why? What was its attraction? Because it proclaimed good news of a Loving Father Who wanted all men to be His sons. It proclaimed victory over death and a new way of life. A way of Love and Mercy in a world of barbarity. Who, but the mean heart, could help being attracted to it? This glorious creation survives among us - as a rather special social club.

 

 

A Church I know is described as ‘active,’ and has, for these days a fairly large following. It has a good dramatic society, a fairly good concert party, but I’m afraid there is little emphasis in that Church on the Divine Destiny of Man. It isn’t an unusual case.

 

 

Don’t you think we are being rather paltry? Aren’t we missing the mark of our high calling? The Church should be demonstrating a Way of Life, not seeking merely to entertain. In our anxiety to “popularise” Church-going we have employed quite a number of the devices of secular entertainment. Unfortunately, instead of the Church converting them to its own use, as it might have done, they have converted the Church.

 

 

We have well-run socials full (usually?) of good fellowship, concerts by the score, sewing parties (excellent things for a purpose), but do we care a jot about the spread of the Kingdom? Do we mind that the Church is missing the mark? That the world counts it a failure?

 

 

We are meeting expenses, you say. Excellent! We are keeping our doors open. Fine! Splendid work, but what about the mark? What is the mark? Let’s examine it again in case we have forgotten.

 

 

The Church was surely intended to exist as the Body of Christ on earth. His Hands, with which to “do good,” His Voice to teach the way of Love and Mercy. His Voice telling Men the startling, thrilling news that they are “called to be sons of God.” It’s a frightening thought that every time we do something we hope no one has seen; every time we “put up” with something we ought to “put right,” we are betraying Christ as surely as Judas did and with less excuse. We have had nearly two thousand years in which to get things into their right perspective. It’s no use each of us saying:-

 

 

“Well! Why look at me? What can I do? What about the others?” Never mind the others. We must get ourselves right first. Ask God to help you remember that you are Christ’s Hands, His Feet, His Voice. Remember that by what you do and say, the Church is judged. It is the responsibility of each member to assist the Church to leave behind its social club days and become once again the Messenger of God, pressing toward the mark.

 

 

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HOLINESS AND THE ADVENT

 

 

The return of Christ has been a powerful incentive to holiness all down the Christian ages. Clement of Rome (A.D. 95):- “Let us be followers of those who went about in goatskins and sheepskins, preaching the Coming of Christ.” Ignatius of Antioch (A.D. 100):- “Consider the times, and expect Him Who is above all time.” Polycarp (A.D. 108):- “God has raised up our Lord Jesus from the dead, and He will come to judge the world and raise the saints; when, if we walk worthy of Him, we shall reign together with Him.” Justin Martyr (A.D. 150):- “They are destitute of just reason who do not understand that which is clear from all the Scriptures, that two Comings of Christ are announced.” Irenaeus (A.D. 180):- “The Lord shall come from Heaven in the clouds, with the glory of His Father, casting Antichrist and them that obey him into a lake of fire, but bringing to the just the times of the kingdom.” Cyril of Jerusalem (A.D. 350):- “In His Coming which is to be, He comes attended by the angel host, receiving glory.” Basil of Caesarea (A.D. 370):- “We announce Thy Death, O Lord, confess Thy Resurrection, and expect Thy Second Advent.”

 

 

So also even in later ages. The Sacramentary of Gelasius (A.D. 492) is full of collects on the subject, of which the following are a few examples:- “Stir up, O Lord, Thy power, and come, and stir up our heart to prepare Thy ways.” “Make us watchful and heedful in awaiting the Coming of Thy Son, Christ our Lord; that, when He shall come and knock, He may find us not sleeping in sins, but awake, and rejoicing in His praises.” “We beseech Thee, O Lord our God, to gird up the loins of our mind by Thy Divine power; that, at the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, we may be found worthy of the banquet of eternal life.” “Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, this grace unto Thy people, to wait with all vigilance for the Coming of Thy only begotten Son; that, as He, the Author of our salvation, taught us, we may prepare our souls like blazing lamps to meet Him.”

 

 

The Mozarabic Sacramentary, of the seventh century, contains the following prayers:- “O Christ, our God, Who wilt come to judge the world in the Manhood which Thou hast assumed, we pray Thee to sanctify us wholly, that in the Day of Thy Coming, our whole spirit, soul, and body may so revive to a fresh life in Thee, that we may live and reign with Thee for ever.” “Be Thou to us, O Lord, a crown of glory in the Day when Thou shalt come to judge the world.” The Gallican Sacramentary, of the eighth century, prays:- “O Lord God, Father Almighty, purify the secrets of our hearts, and mercifully wash out all the stains of sin; and grant, O Lord, that, being cleansed from our crimes by the benediction of Thy tenderness, we may without any terror await the fearful and terrible Coming of Jesus Christ our Lord.”

 

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