CHAPTER I THE IMPORTANCE OF THE TRUTH THAT OUR LORD JESUS IS COMING AGAIN. The frequency of its mention-Its emphasis as the comfort of saints and the blessed hope of the believer-It is peculiarly obnoxious to the worldly-It is the incentive to service, watchfulness and separation-Four stages of the author's experience The transformation wrought in him by the apprehension of the doctrine. "Ye turned from the idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for His Son from Heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivereth us from the wrath to come." I THESSALONIANS 1:9, 10. "For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye, before our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming." 1 THESSALONIANS 2:19. "Amen: come, Lord Jesus." REVELATION 22:20. CHAPTER I THE IMPORTANCE OF THE TRUTH THAT OUR LORD JESUS IS T COMING AGAIN HE importance in God's thought of the fact that this event is mentioned more times in the New Testament than there are chapters. It has been said by those who have taken the trouble to count that it is mentioned 318 times in the 260 chapters of the New Testament. And one who made a life-long study of the doctrine has said that it occupies one in every twenty-five verses from Matthew to Revelation. It also occupies a prominent place in the Old Testament, as by far the greater part of the predictions concerning Christ in the Old Testament are connected, not with His first coming to die as an atoning Saviour, but with His Second Coming to rule as King. The coming again of Jesus Christ is the one doctrine with which God commands us to comfort sorrowing saints. When death had begun to thin the ranks of the believers in Thessalonica, and hearts were aching over separation from those who had fallen asleep, the Apostle Paul wrote, "But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that fall asleep; that ye sorrow not, even as the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words" (I Thess. 4:13-18). As "these words" have entirely to do with the Second Coming of Christ, it is evident that the one doctrine with which God commands us to comfort those in sorrow over the loss of loved ones is that of our Lord's Coming again. There is no other truth that has such comfort in it for intelligent believers when they are called upon to pass through deep sorrow as that of the Return of the Lord and what it involves for us and for those who have fallen asleep. Time and again in writing to those who have lost for a time those whom they love, I have obeyed God's commandment and used the truth of our Lord's Return to comfort them, and many have told me afterwards how full of comfort this truth has proven when everything else had failed. In the Old Testament also we find God through His servant Isaiah comforting Israel in the time of their misery and desolation with the thought of the Coming of the Lord: "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up on a high mountain; O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold, your God! Behold, his reward is with him and his recompense before him" (Is. 40:1, 9, 10). Time and again in the New Testament the Coming Again of our Lord Jesus Christ and the events connected therewith are held up as |