He personally was coming. The apostle Paul wrote, "The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven." And the two men who stood by the disciples as they were looking steadfastly into heaven, trying to follow Jesus with their eyes as He went away from them, said, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking into heaven? this Jesus who was received up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye beheld Him going into heaven" (Acts 1:11). There is no mistaking the meaning of these words. Jesus Himself in His own person (the same Jesus who went away) is coming back again. Some years ago a minister of the Gospel wrote, "We must not expect a personal return of our Lord, but be satisfied with Him as coming more and more in all the wonders and glories of this closing nineteenth century." The man who wrote these words was a good and godly man, a man who had made great sacrifices for the Lord Jesus Christ, but I have never been able to comprehend how any man who really loved the Lord could have written these words. The wonders and glories of the closing nineteenth century were well enough in their place, and for them we thank God, but if one really loves the Lord, it is not the wonders

and glories that He works that we long for, but for Jesus Himself. As much as we rejoice in His works, it is Himself that we long for; it is Himself that we must have; and it is Himself that we shall have. Suppose a bridegroom had left his bride and gone into a distant land to prepare a home for her, assuring her that in due time he would himself return for her to take her to the home that he had gone to prepare. Every now and then he has sent her some gift as a remembrance and a token of his continued love. One day a friend calls upon the bride and finds her eagerly looking forward to the day when the bridegroom himself shall return for her. After listening to her declaration of her longing for the return of the loved one, he says to her, "You must not expect a personal return of your husband. When he told you he would come again, he did not refer to a personal return. Has he not sent you many gifts as tokens of his love?" "Yes." "Well it is not for himself that you must look-you must learn to see him and be satisfied with him as coming to you more and more in the gifts which he is sending you from time to time." What would the bride reply? She would answer, "I do not desire his gifts. I

And it is for

am longing for himself." JESUS HIMSELF that the true believer is longing. We cannot be satisfied with him as coming more and more in the richer experiences of grace that are constantly coming to us by the power of the Holy Spirit. We long for Himself and we must have Himself and we shall have Himself. "This very Jesus, which was taken up into heaven shall so come in like manner" as He was seen to go into heaven.

II. The verses already quoted make clear a second thing about the coming again of our Lord, that is, He shall come BODILY AND VISIBLY. He "shall so come in like manner as” He was seen going into heaven (Acts 1:11). By any fair interpretation this can mean nothing short of a visible and bodily coming. It may mean more than that. It cannot mean less. It has been said that the expression "so come in like manner" only indicates the certainty of His coming, and has nothing to do with the manner of His Coming, but the Greek words thus translated will not admit of this construction. The literal translation of the Greek words is "Thus shall come in the manner which," and the form of expression is never used anywhere to indicate mere certainty, but always to indicate manner. In the

very manner in which they had seen Him go would He come again. He had gone from their sight bodily and visibly. They had "beheld Him going into heaven" and should behold Him coming again. Furthermore, in Heb. 9:28 we read, "So Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for Him, unto salvation." The Greek word translated "shall appear" means literally "shall be seen.' The word admits of no significance but that of seeing with the eye. If possible, it is even clearer in Rev. 1:7, "Behold, he cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see him." Once at the close of a sermon on the Second Coming of Christ, a devoted disciple of Pastor Russell and his Millenial Dawn vagaries approached me and said, "You do not think, do you, that Jesus when He comes again will actually be seen with the eye?" I replied, "It does not matter what I think, the only question is, what does God's Word say? and God says in so many words in His Word, "Behold He cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see Him." Of course this does not fit in with the teaching of the Millenial Dawn books, that He has already come, nor does it

fit in with many other current theories, but it is the plain teaching of the Word of God and cannot be escaped, except by such a juggling with God's Word as if applied to other passages of the Word would lead to utter confusion. If the Bible teaches anything definitely and distinctly, it teaches that the Lord Jesus who was taken up visibly and bodily from Mt. Olivet into heaven, so that the disciples saw Him as He went, is coming again visibly and bodily, so that people shall see Him as he comes. We shall not merely feel His spiritual presence near; we shall see Him, as really and as distinctly as the disciples saw Him as He stood talking with them on Mt. Olivet the moment before His feet left this earth and He was received up unto the Father.

There are to be different stages of this personal, visible coming of our Lord.

1. The first stage in His coming will be as He comes in the air whither His believing people shall be caught up to meet Him. "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