Streams in the Desert

Devotional For

July 17

      The Second Coming
      
      "Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown" (Rev. 3:11).
      
      George Mueller bears this testimony, "When it pleased God in July, 1829, to reveal to my heart the truth of the personal return of the Lord Jesus, and to show me that I had made a great mistake in looking for the conversion of the world, the effect that it produced upon me was this: From my inmost soul I was stirred up to feel compassion for perishing sinners, and for the slumbering world around me lying in the wicked one, and considered, 'Ought I not to do what I can for the Lord Jesus while He tarries, and to rouse a slumbering church?"'
      
      There may be many hard years of hard work before the consummation, but the signs are to me so encouraging that I would not be unbelieving if I saw the wing of the apocalyptic angel spread for its last triumphal flight in this day's sunset; or if tomorrow morning the ocean cables should thrill us with the news that Christ the Lord had alighted on Mount Olivet or Mount Calvary to proclaim universal dominion. O you dead churches wake up! O Christ, descend! Scarred temple, take the crown! Bruised hand, take the sceptre! Wounded foot, step the throne! Thine is the kingdom. --Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage, D. D.
      
      "It may be in the evening,
      When the work of the day is done,
      And you have time to sit in the twilight,
      And watch the sinking sun,
      While the long bright day dies slowly
      Over the sea,
      And the hours grow quiet and holy
      With thoughts of Me;
      While you hear the village children
      Passing along the street
      Among those passing footsteps
      May come the sound of My Feet.
      Therefore I tell you, Watch!
      By the light of the evening star
      When the room is growing dusky
      As the clouds afar,
      Let the door be on the latch
      In your home,
      For it may be through the gloaming
      I will come."