That Sunday night preaching was not the first occasion on which I had heard of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ; but that night for the first time the Spirit of God applied the truth to my soul in awakening power. Who the preacher was I know not; whether he is still alive, I cannot say. My thoughts were engaged, not with the preacher, but with the solemn truth he announced. Often since then have I desired to grasp his hand, and thank him for having been the means, in God's mercy, of disturbing the state of complacency in which I rested. But we shall stand by-and-by on the plains of glory and sing together the redemption song, "Worthy is the Lamb.”
Long ago the circumstances of that service have passed out of my mind, if indeed they were ever remembered beyond the night itself. One great truth took possession of my soul: The Lord Jesus Christ is coming back, and He will come in the twinkling of an eye.
Reader, these words are true! I felt them then to be so. The Holy Ghost applied the Word of God in power to my soul, and I began to realize the awfulness of my unconverted, unprepared condition.
As I left that room my alarm was intensified. A strange and startling sight met my gaze as I looked up into the heavens. Never before had I seen such a display of the "Northern Lights." Streaks of brilliant light were flashing across the sky, and the awful feeling pervaded my whole being that the Lord was just about to descend into the air. I clung closely to a Christian by whose side I was walking, as though for greater safety, and said tremblingly, "I don't want to go to hell.”
"No," she replied, "it would be terrible to go there.”
By all this the Lord was opening my eyes to see my lost and needy condition. In my distress I cried to Him, and before long I was able to rejoice in Christ as my Savior and Deliverer from "the wrath to come.”
Reader, how is it with you? Are you ready for His coining? Perhaps you have Christian parents and friends as I had. What a terrible thing if the Lord were to come this day and take them to glory, but leave you behind! Remember, it will be "in the twinkling of an eye.”
I, in my ignorance, thought that those flashes of light in the sky were premonitory signs that the Lord was coming. No such signs will take place before He comes into the air for His people. It will be "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.”
NO TIME TO PREPARE! If you are not ready, you will be left behind to undergo the awful judgments that shall fall upon the earth, and to "be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power," when He shall return with His saints to execute those judgments (2 Thess. 1 & 2).
Oh friend, turn not a deaf ear! Treat not this appeal with careless indifference! Laugh not to scorn this warning voice! It may be the last that shall ever be addressed to you. The Lord is at hand! He will come "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye." 1 Cor. 15:5252In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:52).