The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1905, Page 19

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

19

latter day upon the earth. Yes, Jesus will return
visibly, and all the eyes of men will behold Him in
His divine glory. ‘‘When the Son of man shall
come in His glory, and all the holy angels with
Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory;
and before Him shall be gathered all nations,’’ Matt.
25, 381.32. All lowliness and poverty will have van-
ished) the world will look upon its Lord and King,
and every tongue will have to confess that He is
the Lord.

This return will occur on the last day. God has
appointed the day of Christ’s visible and glorious
return, but He has revealed it to no man. Even
Christ in the days of His humility knew not when
it would be. ‘‘Of that.day and that hour knoweth
no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven,
neither the Son, but the Father,’’ Mark 138, 32.
And since God in His wisdom has withheld from
us the knowledge of this day, it would be sinful on
our part to try to ascertain it.

Besides telling us that the last day will surely
come, God has, however, told us that it will come
suddenly, unexpectedly. ‘‘The day of the Lord
will come as a thief in the night,’’ 2 Pet.3,10. As

the fowler’s snare falls suddenly and without warn- ~

ing upon the bird, so the last day will break upon
an unsuspecting world.
has told us that ‘‘the end of all things is at hand,”’
1 Pet. 4,7. Christ may come any day, any hour,
the signs which Christ told us would precede His
coming having all been fulfilled. Therefore we
should always be ready to receive our King when
He comes to take us home, to His Father’s house,
with its many mansions.

: Christ will return at the last day to judge the
quick and the dead. ‘‘He is ordained of God to be
the Judge of quick and dead,”’ Acts 10,42. On the
last day Jesus Christ, the God-man, will occupy His
judgment seat and execute judgment upon the whole
world, Acts17,31. The whole world, all men, from
Adam and Eve to the last child born of woman,
must then appear before the Judge. Then king
and subject, prince and beggar, the high and the

‘low, the learned and the ignorant, all without ex-
ception will be gathered around His throne. They
whose bodies molder in the grave, they who were
devoured by wild beasts, they whose bleached bones
are scattered in the desert, they whose bodies lie
at the bottom of the sea, they whose bodies were
burned and whose ashes were scattered to the winds,

yes, all the dead and all that remain alive till that’

day, all must then appear before Christ’s throne.
And when all will be gathered about the Judge,
then the judgment will take place. Christ will then

In addition to this God.

judge all flesh according to the word that He has
spoken, John 12, 48. According to his belief or
unbelief every man will be placed with the sheep
at Christ’s right hand, or with the goats upon the
left, for He Himself said: ‘‘He that believeth and
is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth
not shall be damned.’’ No partiality will be shown,
no exceptions will be made, for Christ will render
righteous judgment. The penetrating eye of Christ
will look into the inmost recesses of the heart, and
no man will be able to deceive Him, nor will any-
one succeed in hiding aught from Him.

To prove the justice of His decision, Christ will
bring forth the testimony of every man’s works.
The good works which the believer has done for
Jesus’ sake will prove that his faith was upright,
and the evil works of the unbeliever will bear testi-
mony to his unbelief. Thus every one will receive
‘“according to that he hath done, whether it be good
or bad,’’ 2 Cor. 5, 10.

Great God, what do I see and hear!
The end of things created;

The Judge of man I see appear,

On clouds of glory seated;

Beneath the cross I view the day

When heaven and earth shall pass away,

And thus prepare to meet Him.
02

- FJ. L.

Answer a Fool According to His Folly.
Prov. 26, 5.

John B. Gough tells a good story of his old friend
Mr. Carroll. Together they had been listening to
an infidel lecturing in Hyde Park on the merits of
illuminating gas, who said that the inventor of gas
did a great deal more for the world than did the in-
ventor of Christianity. At the conclusion of this
man’s tirade against the Gospel, Carroll got up and
said, ‘‘Now that our friend has finished, I would
like to say a word or two to you;”’ and he prefaced
his address in defense of Christianity by saying,
‘When the last speaker comes to die, he will .not
send for a Gospel messenger, I suppose, but he will
send for a gas-fitter.”’

.

Why Not?

When the martyr John Huss was let out to the
stake to’ be bound, they placed a paper crown on his"
head on which devil were painted. When Huss
saw this he said, ‘“My Lord Jesus Christ for my
sake wore a crown of thorns; ey, should I not for
His sake wear this???